Former South Rowan linebacker finds a spot at Appalachian State

That would be Boone, N.C., where Neely has become — after beating some long odds — a member of the Appalachian State football team. And judging from Tuesday’s scrimmage in which Neely, a freshman linebacker, ran back an interception for a touchdown and added two sacks, he’s well on his way to becoming an important member.

“I was just trying to do something,” said Neely. “On the interception, I was right there when they threw to the flat and I picked it off. On the sacks, I just came off the corner on blitzes from the weakside and found the quarterback.”

Neely opened the eyes of both the Mountaineer coaching staff and his teammates with his surprising big plays, but says there’s no danger of his getting the big head.

“Not hardly,” he said. “Look, I’m just third team right now. It’s really hard here. You go around like you’re big stuff and you’ll get whupped for sure.”

For Neely, just wearing a college football uniform is an upset.

He was a good, but not great athlete at South. He was not especially big (around 6 feet) and is probably remembered more for his perpetual smile and 3-point stroke for the Raider basketball team than for his football accomplishments.

He started two years for the varsity in hoops, but averaged only 6.8 ppg as a senior, a figure which didn’t exactly have colleges standing in line.

In football, always his favorite sport, he was a quality receiver his senior year (26 catches for 424 yards) and a dependable defensive back for four years, but it wasn’t like people were stacking all-Rowan County honors at his feet, even in ‘96 when 10 of his Raider teammates made the squad.

When Neely graduated high school in ‘98, his options were slimmer than his 170-pound body. He wasn’t quite quick enough to play DB or wideout in college and he certainly wasn’t big enough to play anywhere else. Then, too, his academics weren’t in perfect shape, either.

But his dad, Aaron, who had coached kids for years at East Rowan and Salisbury, had always told his boy to give his all and never get down. And Andre didn’t.

He spent the ‘98-’99 school year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, enduring the hours of marching and the early wake-up calls, while building up his body and his grades.

“Fork Union? Tough, yeah, real tough, but it was worth it,” said Neely.

A different-looking, more muscular Neely re-surfaced in China Grove during the summer of ‘99, and talked about playing football that fall at Central Florida.

But then he changed his mind.

“Just too far away,” Neely said. “Too far from Mom and Dad.”

Instead, Neely spent the 1999-2000 school year enrolled at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, where he picked up the remaining classes he needed to transfer to Appalachian. And he’s now in solid shape academically.

“I’m a freshman on the field now, but I’ll be a sophomore in the classroom come January,” he said.

The people back home wouldn’t recognize Neely these days, at least until he grins and his smile lights up a room. His shoulders and arms have become massive after endless hours of lifting weights at the South Rowan YMCA. And now — even after the grueling two-a-days of August — he weighs over 200 pounds, every ounce of it rock-solid. He’s still small by linebacker standards at a 1-AA powerhouse, but he’s fast enough to compensate.

“If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be a linebacker someday, I’d never have believed it,” said Neely. “I never figured that my first step on defense was gonna be forward, instead of back.”

And speaking of going back, Neely gets a reminder of home every day as soon as he wakes up. His roommate is none other than defensive tackle Desmond Miller, who played for South’s arch-enemy A.L. Brown.

“We’re cool, we don’t fight or nothing,” laughed Neely. “We’ve known each other a long time, but I can’t say much to Des about the old days. We beat Brown my freshman year, but they got us every year after that. And my senior year, they just blew us out.”

But Miller and Neely will be on the same team just two weeks from today when the Apps make the short trip down to Winston-Salem to play rival Wake Forest.

“I’m excited about it,” said Neely. “I don’t know that I’ll get on the field, but I should be there on the sideline.”

And that’s a pretty good start for someone who wasn’t even considered a prospect two years ago.