When it comes to Myers Park High School Football, one name comes to mind before all others.
Myers Park head coach Chris James knows nobody will replace Maye on that list, but he’s hoping his crop of rising seniors can at least join the New England Patriot quarterback.
“Drake Maye is synonymous with Myers Park Football; always has been, always will be,” James tells Irish Sports Daily. “I think this ’26 class at Myers Park is pretty special. My hope is that now you have some guys who will also be mentioned with Drake.
“Obviously, they’ve still got whole college careers ahead of them that they have to live up to because Drake obviously was a tremendous talent at Carolina, and obviously you saw what he did his first year in the NFL, but just to kind of give credit to those guys and their hard work.”
James’ rising senior class includes a host of potential Division II and FCS talent, along with safety Josh Hines, who could land some Power-4 offers; Miami cornerback commit Camdin Portis; national receiver prospect Brody Keefe; and top defensive end prospect Rodney Dunham.
Dunham will announce his college selection on Thursday from five finalists: Notre Dame, Duke, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
James says whoever ends up getting Dunham will be getting “a tremendous kid first and foremost.”
“I obviously think it is the most important trait that he has,” the coach continues. “A great personality, but he is a monster on the football field. I think he is still coming into his own as a player.
“Schematically, there are still things that he is learning as a football player, but he has a lot of God-given talents that you just can’t coach. I try not to overcoach him too much, just kind of let him use his God-given talents to do what he does best, which is get after the quarterback.
“Wherever he does decide on Thursday, I think they have a guy who will definitely be an impact player once he’s on campus. I’m excited for him.”
James is fired up for Dunham’s day.
“I’m really excited, really proud of Rodney,” he says. “I think he’s carried himself extremely well during this whole process, and I think he will continue to do that. The kid never gets too high or too low. He’s even-keeled all the time. He’s committing this week, but in my office today he’s talking about prom and who he’s taking to prom. That’s just the kind of kid he is. So really excited and proud of him for this moment.
“I think it’s an important thing for our program and our school. Just an exciting time for Rodney, an exciting time for his friends, his family, the community, and the school. I’m looking forward to it.”
James challenged Dunham to embrace a larger leadership role this offseason and says he’s done that “100 percent.”
“One of the positives about Rodney that I see is that because of how heavily he’s been recruited, how he’s been in the limelight as a highly ranked player, he doesn’t carry himself maybe how other people might view him as being kind of well-known,” says James. “But one thing that he has done is taken this leadership conversation and run with it. He’s doing it in his own way, which I’m glad he is doing.
“I didn’t have a specific expectation of what it was supposed to look like because I’m not going to force him to be somebody that he’s not, but he’s really grown in it. I think the other teammates around him, they really respect him, and they look up to him in terms of obviously, yes, he’s the guy that’s being heavily recruited, but he’s also the guy that’s going above and beyond in the weight room and doing all the extra things to get himself physically prepared and ready for the upcoming season.
“He’s taking the leadership conversation and the leadership role and taking it to a new level. It’s something that I haven’t seen from him in his time that he’s been at Myers Park since his freshman year, but I’m proud that he’s doing that and something that I think he can kind of expand on even more as we get to August and September and something that he’ll be able to take with him once he goes off to college.”
And while the primary focus after Thursday will be back on Myers Park Football, James understands that Dunham needs to prepare for the next step as well.
“I also think this is going to be a little bit of a relief for him to get this whole deal over with and make his decision and can kind of really start gearing towards looking towards the senior year and also prepping him. He’s going to be an early enrollee wherever he goes, so getting him ready for that time period as well.”
