Hickory’s Glass named league coach of the year after 7-5 season
Versatile Zamari Stevenson, who led Statesville to a Western Foothills 3A title, was named the conference player of the year. He unofficially accounted for more than 2,600 yards of total offense. He will play college football at Wake Forest./FACEBOOK PHOTO
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
Conference champion Statesville High leads the All-Western Foothills 3A football team and produced the league’s Player of the Year and Specialist of the Year.
In voting by the conference’s eight head coaches, senior Zamari Stevenson of the Greyhound was named top player in the conference and junior Sam Buckner was named Specialist of the Year.
Statesville won the league title, going 7-0, and finished 12-1 after falling 20-6 last Friday night to Greensboro Dudley in the third round of the state playoffs.
The Offensive Player of the Year is Kyle Kovalchuk, a senior quarterback at North Lincoln, and East Lincoln’s Ben Cutter, a junior, was named Defensive Player of the Year.
GLASS
Joe Glass of Hickory, who guided the Red Tornadoes to a 7-5 season in his first year at Hickory (0-7 the year before) earned Coach of the Year.
Stevenson, who has committed to Wake Forest, is 5-foot, 160 pounds and primarily played quarterback for Statesville. Unofficially, he ran 107 times for 827 yards and 20 scores, went 119 of 160 for 1,621 yards passing with 16 TDs and added seven catches for 156 yards and two scores. He accounted for 2,604 yards of total offense and 38 TDs.
Buckner (5-9, 170) converted 58 of 61 PATs for the Greyhounds and kicked one field goal.
Kovalchuk unofficially had 1,679 yards of total offense for North Lincoln, including 148 carries for 1,090 yards rushing with 19 TDs. He was 26 of 72 passing for 586 yards and six scores. Among his three 200-yard games was 251 yards on 28 carries in a state playoff loss to West Rowan.
CUTTER
Cutter (6-1, 210) had 37 solo tackles for East Lincoln and 158 overall with one interception and four caused fumbles. He averaged 13.2 tackles per game.
Glass came to Hickory, where he had previously been an assistant coach, from the head-coaching job at Lincolnton. The Red Tornadoes had not won seven or more games since 2012 (8-5) and they were 25-63 in the eight seasons that followed that.
ALL-WESTERN FOOTHILLS 3A FOOTBALL: WESTERN FOOTHILLS 3A ALL-CONFERENCE FOOTBALL
