South’s Garrett amazes his coach

BY ED DUPREE
SALISBURY POST

South Rowan halfback Keith Garrett just keeps amazing Raiders head football coach Rick Vanhoy.

“I look out there, and there’s no way that play’s going to work.It looks to me like they’ve got it stopped and jammed up. He just kind of sticks his nose in there and just kind of finds a hole and squirts through it. He’s a great running back,” said Vanhoy.

“I just go hard,” exclaims Garrett, a small, 5-foot-7 speedster who is listed at 155 pounds on the South roster. “I give all my credit to the line.Without my line, I would get nothing. I just go what they give me.”

Garrett is well on his way to becoming only the fourth regular-season 1,000-yard rusher in school history. He’s not likely to catch the all-time record-holder, the late Michael Ramseur, but he will wind up second on the South list if he continues at his pace of 109.2 yards per game.

Ramseur, who went on to star at Wake Forest University, ran for a school-record 1,452 yards in 1981. Other 1,000-yard rushers for the Raiders have been Chris Torrence (1,024 in 1996) and Greg Poole (1,006 in 1977).

Vanhoy, when asked about Garrett’s weight, laughs and says, “He came into the season weighing about 145, almost 150. He’s been able to maintain that pretty good. I haven’t put him on the scales (since preseason), because I really don’t want to know, to be honest. All I want him to do is to keep hanging onto the football and keep running. ... He runs hard. He’s probably the hardest runner around.”

Vanhoy added, “Hopefully, there’s some colleges out there that will give him a dadgum chance. He’s only going to get bigger. I don’t know how much taller he’ll get, but I think he’ll get bigger physically.”

Garrett is No. 2 in Rowan County in yardage per game. West Rowan’s Jonathan Diggs, who has played one less game than Garrett, is the county leader with a 116.3 average. He’s gained 465 in four games and run for five touchdowns. Garrett is also South’s No. 1 pass receiver with seven receptions for 86 yards and two TDs.

“The key to him this year is he has committed himself to being a good football player when he got here. He kept his weight on over the summer and came in much stronger than he’s ever been before. It’s obviously showing up on Friday nights,” said Vanhoy.

Garrett, who ran for 887 yards in 162 carries last season, counting one playoff game, has already had seven Friday nights with over 100 yards rushing in his two-year varsity career. His career best is 139 yards against Salisbury last year and 139 vs. East Rowan in the season opener this year. He got 133 in a big 27-20 victory over Mooresville last Friday.

However, one of his best efforts might have been against a defensive power, South’s arch-rival, unbeaten Kannapolis A.L. Brown. He got 95 yards in 13 carries against the Wonders.

Vanhoy stresses that Garrett is a crucial ingredient in the Raiders being 4-1 near mid-season with another big non-conference rival, Northwest Cabarrus, on the schedule on the road this Friday.

“Keith is a tremendous part of our football team. He’s one of our team captains; he was our summer captain. He’s on the leadership council,” said the coach.

“We as coaches admire his work ethic. He really dedicated himself this summer. He was here every day for all our skill sessions. I don’t think he missed a time. That’s a sign of hard work, and it’s obviously paying off for him.”

South finished the 1999 regular season with three straight victories over 4A Central Piedmont Conference foes West Forsyth, R.J. Reynolds and Mount Tabor to qualify for the state playoffs. The Raiders lost to eventual state champion A.C. Reynolds of Asheville in the playoffs. South is now 7-1 for the last eight regular-season games, losing only to A.L. Brown.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum carrying over from last season to this season,” said Garrett. “We’re just keeping it up. We’re just on cloud nine right now; we’re enjoying it. That’s all we’re doing, going out and having fun.”

The Raiders will soon be heading into the CPC race with a goal of sweeping four league opponents and making the playoffs again.

“We’re ready to play,” Garrett said of the league race, “but we’re taking them one week at a time. We aren’t looking ahead at R.J. Reynolds or Davie County (defending champion). We’re looking at Northwest Cabarrus now.”

Northwest won at South 27-21 last year for the Trojans’ second straight win in the rivalry. Garrett and his teammates hope to keep the Trojans from making it three in a row.