JC Smith football mining high school ranks for talent

HICKORY HIGH SCHOOL

Hickory High running back Isaiah Lackey, who rushed for 1,242 yards and 37 touchdowns in 2024, is the latest Red Tornado to sign with Johnson C. Smith. Golden Bulls coach Maurice Flowers has a longstanding philosophy to recruit high school talent with a sprinkle of transfers from the portal.

Johnson C. Smith coach Maurice Flowers is intentional about recruiting high school talent.

The Golden Bulls have built a steady pipeline with Hickory High and coach Joe Glass in recent years with the most recent commit running back Isaiah Lackey, who ran for1,242 yards and 37 touchdowns on 215 carries in 2024.

“I’m glad to say that if you look at our roster, you’ll see we’ve got some Hickory Red Tornadoes on our team,” Flowers said. “A part of our first recruiting class was Dontae Baker, a slot wide receiver and we’re looking for Dontae to continue doing what he’s doing with his development and play some big-time ball for us.”

Said Glass: “My relationship with [Flowers] goes back probably to when I first started my career at Alexander Central. He was the head coach at Olympic and I actually give him a hard time all the time because we actually upset them in the playoffs, but the relationship has been good. He values our kids and how hard they work, and the things that we put into them.”

Glass’ coaching staff knew Lackey was going to be special early. Despite his philosophy of not bringing freshmen up to the varsity, Lackey’s performance changed Glass’ mind.

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Even with the growing popularity of reaching into the transfer portal for immediate help, Johnson C. Smith football coach Maurice Flowers is an advocate of developing talent by recruiting from the high school ranks.

“I will tell you that [Lackey] is the only freshman that I’ve ever had in my entire career as a head coach that has been brought up to varsity,” Glass said. “I’ve never brought one up before. They may have come up for a game but not come up [all season]. And he started for four straight years in that position, so I have no doubt in my mind that he’s going to go in and make some waves.”

Lackey, who is 5-11 and 215 pounds, isn’t one to buy into hype. He is ready to go in and compete for playing time at JCSU, where last year’s top three running backs return to a team that went 8-2 last year. One of those backs, Harding High graduate Quavaris Crouch, is moving to linebacker.

“For me, I am just ready to get [to JCSU] and work,” said Lackey, who rushed for 1,910 yards and 36 touchdowns on 307 carries for the Red Tornadoes’ 2023 3A state title team. “I want to see if I can do what it takes to get on the field some [in my freshman year], whatever that looks like or whatever that takes, I will do it.”

Since Lackey has not signed yet, Flowers couldn’t speak directly about him, per NCAA recruiting rules, but he has been pleased with the relationship between JCSU and Hickory, which went 14-1 last year.

Another Hickory alumnus at JCSU is DeShawn Medley, a receiver Flowers thinks will make an impact.

“Because we got [Baker] from coach Glass and Hickory, we went back and we got another one, Deshawn Medley, an outstanding wide receiver that was on their state championship team last year,” Flowers said.

“DeShawn came in with the same type of character that Dontae Baker had. He has an outstanding family. I love his family and just love how they raised the young man. He’s just a fine young man off the field and on the field.”

Glass feels the transfer portal era is a disservice to all but the most talented high school players because colleges are recruiting for immediate contributors.

“I think that what we are doing now with the transfer portal is we’re just reinforcing that microwave society,” he said, “and all that talk about kids wanting things fast. They want things now. They don’t get their way, then it’s ‘let me go to the transfer portal.’ I think that we’re taking loyalty out of football. … Guys like coach Flowers who are still taking in high school players are the ones I think will be most successful in the long run.”

For Flowers, having a background in high school football and building relationships with high school coaches makes it easier to understand the value of recruiting at that level.

“For me, when you look at how the transfer pool is affecting high school coaches, high school players and high school families, it’s just really a travesty,” Flowers said. “You see so many colleges that are not really recruiting high school players. They’re going to get 30 and 40 guys out of a transfer portal, and now they’re only getting like three to five high school players, whereas wherever I’m head coach, we’re always going to recruit high school players.

“I feel that in the college game, you’ve got to have good high school players that are going to come in and develop over four years. When they get to be juniors and seniors, they’re going to compete for championships.”

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