Kai’s Five: 5 Most Interesting Storylines Heading Into The 2025 Football Season

What’s up everybody? Long time, no write on this website right? Well, this season I’m back. I am committed to a weekly podcast and column to discuss my thoughts on sports in the Wayne, Johnston and Greene Counties. The concept is simple, five topics, no more than five minutes on the podcast and no more than five paragraphs on a topic in the column. Not abhorrent to the idea? Great. You can find the podcast on our YouTube channel. The column will be here of course. 

Now for this week’s column I will be discussing the five storylines that most interest me going into this new football season. In the past, I would be overly ambitious with full scale predictions, and while I could still do that, I will try to exercise restraint to allow me to enjoy consistency. Let’s get to it!

TOPIC 1: CAN THE COMETS SOAR TO THE STARS?! 

Clayton head coach Scott Chadwick comes into this season coming off back to back double digit win seasons, a feat that the Comets have not done in the MaxPreps era (2004-present). Not only that, but he returns three power 4 recruits in Aiden Smalls, Keyshawn Stancil and Akedran Crumel. Smalls, an NC State commit, was the leading passer and rusher. Stancil, a Clemson commit, was the leader in sacks and top returning tackler. Crumel — a three-star defensive back according to 247sports with offers from ACC, SEC, and Big 10 programs — led the team in pass deflections and interceptions as a sophomore last season. To add to the wealth, the Comets added Wilson Prep’s top defensive player in Jordan Hamm — who totaled 123 tackles and 24 sacks as a sophomore in 1-A — plus Cleveland’s top receiver from last year in Deangelo Ruffin Jr. Sounds like a good deal right, but like medicine that cures your existing problem but then gives you another with winning comes higher expectations.

Clayton is not a program devoid of any success. The Comets last won a state championship in 1989, but have had a winning record 12 of the last 20 years. The Comets also were in the NCHSAA 3-AA Eastern Regional in the COVID-shortened 2021 spring season. I say that to say that Clayton has had success in the past, but have yet to go past third round in the MaxPreps era. When the Conets went to the Eastern Regional, it was also under Shane Handy — not Scott Chadwick. Chadwick even noted to jocosports.com that program needed to take the next step, saying: “Back-to-back 10-win seasons is good, but (we’ve got) nothing to show for it.” High school football, you can win two championships a year: a conference title and a state title. The Conets have not won a conference title since 2017 and no state title since 1989. This is the year Clayton has to win, at least the conference title, and make a run at the state title.

Winning a state title in 7-A would be no walk in the park. The state broke up the four classifications into eight. Defending 4-A state champion Grimsley now resides in 7-A, and returns plenty including the number one player in the country of Faizon Brandon at QB. 7-A also has perennial powers of Wake Forest, Cleveland, Cardinal Gibbons, New Bern, Weddington, Richmond Senior, and plenty more with rich winning histories. The 7-A state champion will have to go through a real gauntlet.

Speaking of Cleveland, I don’t think many would consider this season a success for Clayton if they couldn’t beat Cleveland this year. Short of a state title appearance, I’m not sure any fan in Clayton blue would be happy without beating the boys on Polenta Road. The Comets’ conference title drought is because of the Rams. Cleveland has beaten Clayton 8 times in the last seven years, including the aforementioned Eastern Regional in 2021. The Comets the last two years have been within two points of the Rams, and both times were with home field throughout the majority of the playoffs on the line. Both times, the loss caused Clayton to have a much tougher road in the playoffs. I think regardless of what happens in the playoffs, the Comets have to win the conference title this year. That’s where the bar has to be set.

Expectations can be tough, but they’re important. They uphold standards. They force you to push the limit and reach for the stars. The Comets have all the expectations of being the top team in the WJG sports area this year, and I’m excited to see how that plays out. 

TOPIC 2: ARE THE RAMS DUE FOR A FALL OFF?!

Cleveland High has been playing varsity football since the fall of 2011, and their worst season was a 8-5 campaign in 2017. The Rams have not lost a regular season game since September 20th, 2019. Since that 2017 campaign, the Rams are 82-10 with seven straight conference championships and one state championship appearance. But there’s a different feel around the program going into the season this year.

Why is that? Well, Jackson Byrd has flown the coop — pen rather since we’re talking about Rams. Bad joke? Fine. But Byrd was no joke. Byrd amassed over 10,000 pass yards, 1700 rushing yards, and 150 touchdowns in his varsity career before graduating to piloting East Tennessee State’s offense. Losing a quarterback like Byrd will absolutely raise questions, but this isn’t head coach’s Scott Riley’s first time doing this. Byrd came into high school with a crazy lore — and scored 50 touchdowns on JV to confirm everyone’s thoughts — but headed into his sophomore season, he was still replacing a legend in Skyler Locklear. Locklear, the current starting quarterback at University of Texas El-Paso, had quite a career with over 7000 passing yards, 1200 rushing yards and 100 touchdowns in three seasons as a starter. Even Locklear didn’t take over for some no-name QB. Locklear inherited the job from two-year starter Darius Ocean, who moved to Charlotte. Ocean put up over 6000 total yards and 69 touchdowns in two years as a starter and had led the Rams to their longest playoff run in school history at that time in 2018 with a loss in the fourth round — a game before the state championship. Ocean went on to play at Division I FBS Western Kentucky, with some stops in Division II at Valdosta State and Johnson C Smith. I ran took over for Caiden Norman, who totaled up over 10,000 yards and was the school’s all-time TD record holder before Byrd with 114 TDs, also walked on at ECU. I explain all this to note that for the last 10 years, Cleveland High School has been led by a quarterback who ended up playing Division I football. I’m not nearly as tapped in to the western part of Johnston County as I used to be, so I have no clue what to expect from the incumbent starter Owen Hulbert going into this season. He’s played 8 varsity games on MaxPreps in mop up duty for Byrd and threw 14 passes, completing 6 of them for 42 yards with one interception. Hulbert comes in without much experience and large shoes to fill — not an easy duty. But he has a coaching staff with plenty of experience in putting together prolific offenses. In fact, Riley told jocosports.com’s Randy Capps,  that Hulbert “takes the reins at quarterback for Jackson Byrd and will continue the legacy of Cleveland quarterbacks.” The Rams lowest point total in school history for a year was 484 points in 2017 — a paltry 37 points a game. 

So aside from the quarterback issue, why are “a lot of people writing” Cleveland’s obituary as Riley quipped in his interview with Randy Capps? Well, departures of junior receivers Malachi Thomas to Millbrook and aforementioned Ruffin Jr. to Clayton — give the sense that maybe the Rams will not be what they were in the past. Thomas received an offer from Memphis and Coastal Carolina before transferring to Millbrook. With two top players transferring and a great senior class graduating, it seems almost like a smoke signal, right? A dumpster fire year coming, right? Well, the truth is, players leave high schools all the time now — some for valid reasons, others just because. The last high profile transfer I remember from the Rams was Jalen Chadwick, who transferred over to Clayton in 2019. It was a big deal then. Some coaches in the area thought maybe Cleveland was prepared to fall off as Ocean had just transferred to Hough earlier. But then the Rams went 12-2 with Locklear and some kid named Omarion Hampton leading the way as sophomores. Turned out to be no big deal, right? 

I think this will probably be the end result this time around with all that being said. Riley’s ten years in  and has a record of 120-25. Judging from his quotes to jocosports.com, it doesn’t seem like the orange cap is prepared to be humbled. In fact, he says that people need to “study history — it repeats itself.” For all of the uncertainty around the team, they return leading rusher Kaleb Ferrell, who I believed would be a star after watching him in middle school at Swift Creek. On defense, they return two of their top four tacklers from last season in Cam Melvin and Jaylen King along with starters Josh Booth and Daniel Lugo. Not to mention that Cleveland Middle has won the last two middle school championships for the county’s bigger middle schools. So the cupboard is far from bare.

Cleveland’s high level performance over the last seven years has led to this point where just because things don’t look as stable as usual, that now even a winning season looks like a down year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Clayton wins 7 or 8 games. I wouldn’t be surprised if they won 12 games. I would be surprised if they had the first losing season in school history. The haters are praying for the Rams to fall off, but will they hit the ground and bounce up like round ball or will the haters get their prayers answered? We’ll find out by November 1st after another classic installment of Cleveland vs Clayton. 

TOPIC 3: IS AYCOCK REBUILDING OR RELOADING?!

Aycock is not a school steeped in football tradition. In fact, they are 109-130 in the MaxPreps era with just seven winning seasons in 20 years. That is why the 2025 senior class was so special for that program. When Thomas Zietlow came in to take over the program in 2021, he made the conscious decision to keep every freshman on JV in hopes to teach them how to win football games. The Varsity Falcons went 2-8 while the JV Falcons went 7-2, it was the first time in the MaxPreps era that the JV had a winning season. The JV Falcons have not had a losing season under Zietlow, and the varsity has not had a losing season since Zietlow’s first year either. In Zietlow’s second year, he called up Antwain Grantham, Jasaan Williams, Ricky Elliot, Zimere McClarin, and Jadon Best. These five would help Aycock to win 28 games in three years including their first conference title in 40 plus years in 2022 and another conference chip in 2024. But those guys are now graduated.

So, where do the Golden Falcons go without those type of program cornerstones? Well, usually, down. It doesn’t help that top returning tackler Jeremy Johnson hit the portal and ended up at Wilson Prep. Aycock had a little over 4000 yards on offense last year, but seniors Elliot, McClarin and Caleb Fredrick accounted for over 3500 of it. 88% of the offensive yards gone in one graduation. The Golden Falcons registered 641 tackles as a team…Grantham, Johnson, Williams, Best and Fredrick made 291 of them. Ads in the seniors I didn’t name and that’s another 119 tackles. So that’s 410 tackles gone or about 64% of tackles from last season. Departures also accounted for 16 of Aycock’s 29 sacks and 11 of Aycock’s 14 interceptions. It’s rightfully, a huge cause for concern.

But the previously mentioned JV program and the fact that this 2026 senior class was the last class from Norwayne Middle that won the county’s middle school championship leaves some hope in a dark place. Returners include signal caller Sidney Lancaster, who completed 69 of 150 passes for 1190 yards and 16 TDs with only 5 interceptions. Multi sport star, and ECU baseball commit, Janeson Steele will take the gridiron as a promising receiving threat at 6-5 plus the team’s second leading returning tackler and sacker with 51 tackles, 3 sacks and a pick last year. Aycock also has a stud linebacker returning in MarShaun McCullen who led the team in sacks with 9 and is the leading returning tackler with 66 plus a pick last year. 

I think this season will kind of tell us what type of football program Aycock will be going forward. You look at Aycock of old and they were buried in a super condense that pretty much assured they would lose 4 games minimum each year. There are few programs who can produce winning seasons while playing New Bern, J.H. Rose, D.H. Conley, and South Central each year, which is what Aycock was tasked to do before the realignment in 2021. The realignment in 2021 brought hope to Aycock, as they went from being in a conference with perennial powers New Bern and J.H. Rose to a conference where Fike and Hunt were the most storied programs. It gave them a chance to try to write a new history, and they did by winning two conference championships. But now they enter a conference where they shed West Johnston, South Johnston, Smithfield-Selma and East Wake four programs with a combined two state championship appearances in their schools’ histories and gain Southern Nash, Northern Nash and Rocky Mount with four state championship appearances in the last 10 years alone.

Rebuild or reload? What will it be for the Golden Falcons? 

TOPIC 4: CAN ALA JOHNSTON MAKE SOME NOISE?!

American Leadership Academy – Johnston finished last year 7-3 in their first year in the NCHSAA. The Patriots were not eligible for the playoffs because they had no conference, but showed a lot of promise in their inaugural season in the NCHSAA. It’s always fun to get some new energy and the Patriots have a lot to be excited about.

ALA returns majority of their players and have plenty of production coming back. Their leading passer is Ian Wanda who threw for 1486 yards  and 19 TDs. They have two thousand yard rushers in Symir Ray and Anthony Jimenez. Three players with over 70 tackles in Elijah Fulton, Demarr Williams, and Helaire Trahan. Trahan also had 5 sacks.

The Patriots got a favorable conference placement as the five teams in their conference had a combined 21-30 records last year. But the two opponents they faced last year that are currently in their conference, Roanoke Rapids and Wake Prep Academy, they lost to them by combined scores of 78-29. It will be interesting to see how far ALA can go. They’re in 2-A so a state championship run is probably not possible, as there is a team and in purple and gold in Edgecombe County that will likely occupy that spot, but a deep run is definitely possible.

TOPIC NUMBER 5: WILL EASTERN WAYNE CONTINUE TO BUILD?! 

Eastern Wayne is looking to continue building as they are going for their fifth winning season in a row. But last year, the Warriors won 10 games and look to have a consecutive double-digit win total for the first time since 2014. But much like Aycock, the Warriors have lost a talented 2025 class.

But the Warriors do have a bit more coming back like leading passer, rusher and tackler Izeiah Oates who threw for 2166 yards and 30 TDs, running for 645 yards and 9 TDs, and tallied 85 tackles. To assist him, he also has Charlie Thomas returning as the leading receiver with 31 catches, 529 yards and 9 TDs. Leading pass rusher Korieonta Williams also returns with six sacks last season. Oates also had 3 interceptions and two interceptions. Throw in exiciting sophomores Sincere Battle and Levi Evans to the mix plus Eastern Wayne Middle has been undefeated in football for the last two seasons. There is a lot to be excited about on New Hope Road.

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