North Carolinas school league takes a break over Christmas after the first three weeks of the season, and sitting atop the league right now is 3-0 South Meck.
After a convincing win over Myers Park in which they, for the most part, negated the MP pack power, South Mecklenburg capped off a run of three games in which they won by large margins. And one of the main reasons is they just don't let up.
"We are a really well-conditioned team," said Head Coach Rick Norvell. "We won the final in 2022 and we're a deeper team this year and our conditioning has really won us games."
"Fitness is so important," said No. 8 Nick Flemings. "To beat the best teams you have to be intense, and you have to be intense all the time."
Add to that the fact that this team only graduated a small number of players from last year, and then all you need is the chemistry.
"We work hard to focus on being a team," said Jack Williams. "We don't have a lot of time when we come together so what I try to do is just lead by example."
"We can't have animosity on the team," added lock Brennan Rhodes. "We don't have time. The important thing is to start working together and staying as a unit, because we'll need that when the games get tougher."
Rhodes is part of a forward pack that has showed a high work rate in the rucks and phase play, and their set piece has been strong also. Rhodes is one of several options in the lineout when it's the South Meck throw-in, but on defense he's the main weapon. And he has found success, stealing several lineouts against Ardrey Kell and against Myers Park at the very least ruining their attacking platform. Set piece success has been there on both sides.
"Our set pieces has been going really well," added Quinn Miller. "The forwards just focus on it as a group and we take pride in working together."
