Northwestern and South Pointe high schools claim football championship titles

ROCK HILL, S.C. — This weekend two Rock Hill high school football teams came home with a championship trophy.

It’s the first time that’s happened in 15 years.

“Football has always been it for me, so to see it pay off like this is wonderful,” said safety and linebacker Tamarion Watkins.

Football is somewhat of a first love for Watkins.

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This weekend, a chapter of that love story came to a brilliant end. He said during his last play on defense, he knew the championship game would have a happy ending.

“I didn’t expect that at all,” he said. “The ball rolled a certain way that night and we were on it.”

Northwestern High School won its seventh championship title, 55-13. The next day, South Pointe High School won its eighth championship game in school history.

South Pointe safety and quarterback J’Zavien Currence said he knew his team had the victory after his first drive on offense.

“It was a little too easy ‚” he said. “It wasn’t a surprise to me because I’ve seen the work that we put in all into that moment.”

But both seniors said their real success is how they performed both on and off the field during their high school careers.

“Our students have a combined GPA of 3.5 across the 190 football players at two schools,” said Jimmy Duncun, the athletic director of Rock Hill Schools. “Just incredible.”

“It’s times when it’s gonna be low and high. Take it all in the chin, chin up, chest out,” Currence said. “Doing that for my family because they did it for me.”

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