BY LANGSTON WERTZ JR.
lwertz@charlotteobserver.com
South Mecklenburg High football coach Rocky White said that senior defensive lineman Jake Lawler could have chosen almost any college in America.
Lawler, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average, is ranked among the nation’s top 200 high school players by ESPN, No. 3 overall in North Carolina and the nation’s 17th-best defensive end. Lawler -- who had more than 20 scholarship offers from ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC schools -- will graduate in December to enroll at North Carolina.
At a recent practice, South Mecklenburg football coach Rocky White has the attention of the Sabres, including Shrine Bowl defensive end Jake Lawler, left. Friday night, South Mecklenburg will play host to Berry in SoMeck 4A football. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
“Everybody, and I really mean everybody, wanted him,” White said this week. “He does the (public address) announcing at our (junior varsity) games. That’s how sharp a kid he is.”
Lawler is 6-foot-3, 227 pounds and has run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. He bench-presses 325 pounds and squats 500, weight-lifting numbers White calls “simply impressive.”
Former Carolina Panthers lineman Sean Gilbert, a former South Mecklenburg assistant coach, marvels at how well Lawler uses his hands to create angles and knock linemen out of his way.
“Jake plays with what I call an intelligent abandon,” White said. “He’s extremely aggressive but yet he’s under control. It’s a tough game and he plays a tough position, and he gets the best offensive lineman every week, and yet he still gets it done.”
Lawler missed the Sabres’ first game with a hand injury, but has made 33 tackles and seven sacks in four games.
But three years ago, he said he nearly quit football.
Lawler made South Meck’s varsity as a freshman and competed against future collegians such as Providence’s Bentley Spain (North Carolina) and Ardrey Kell’s Mason Veal (North Carolina) in the SoMeck 8 conference.
“I was very raw and this was back when the (conference) was insanely talented,” Lawler said of the offensive linemen. “Every week, it was a new stud. I was not being very successful and it was really frustrating. But coach Gilbert told me to stick with it. At the end of my ninth-grade year, he said something good will come out of it.”
Lawler began hitting his stride as a sophomore and drew heavy college attention as a junior, when he had 85 tackles and set a school record with 13 sacks. He committed to North Carolina in January after attending a Tar Heels basketball game in Chapel Hill.
"Coach (Gene) Chizik pulled me to the side and said, ‘You’re our No. 1 priority (in the class of 2017) and we want you more than anybody else,” Lawler recalls the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator saying. "Coach (Larry) Fedora said the same thing. When we were talking he said, ‘We think about you more than anyone in the 2017 class and want you to be a part of this family.’ I said, ‘I want to be a part of it, too.’ "
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Jake Lawler @Jakelawler42
#GDTBATH
3:03 PM - 31 Jan 2016
Lawler said he didn’t intend to commit that weekend, but the pull of the Tar Heels has always been there. His parents - Andy and Michelle - are UNC graduates who were married in Chapel Hill.
Recently, Andy, an assistant principal at Northwest School of the Arts, tweeted that the Lawlers were so committed to the Tar Heels’ football team they painted their front door Carolina blue, and there’s a picture of Jake in front of it.
View image on Twitter
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(((Andy Lawler))) @ALawler007
How committed is @Jakelawler42 to UNC? We painted our door Carolina Blue! @InsideCarolina @Boss_Martin247@AM_UNCFootball @CoachBrewerUNC
“When I stepped on campus for the first time,” Jake Lawler said, “it felt like home. And, of course, it would be nice for my parents to see their kid in Carolina blue. But it’s just everything about their program. First, it’s a top-flight education, the whole staff is great, with coach Chizik being the defensive coordinator and coach Fedora is great and (assistant) coach (Gunter) Brewer is one of the best people I know. It’s a great fit.”
South Meck coach White believes the Tar Heels are getting a player who will contribute immediately
“He’s very, very mature for his age, he’s very organized and he’s got a tremendous work ethic,” White said of Lawler. “And that’s not even talking about his athletic ability.
“He’s the total package. He’s as good an athlete, student and person that I’ve ever coached in all my years, and I started back with (coach) Bruce Hardin (at West Charlotte) in 1982.”
lwertz@charlotteobserver.com
South Mecklenburg High football coach Rocky White said that senior defensive lineman Jake Lawler could have chosen almost any college in America.
Lawler, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average, is ranked among the nation’s top 200 high school players by ESPN, No. 3 overall in North Carolina and the nation’s 17th-best defensive end. Lawler -- who had more than 20 scholarship offers from ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC schools -- will graduate in December to enroll at North Carolina.
At a recent practice, South Mecklenburg football coach Rocky White has the attention of the Sabres, including Shrine Bowl defensive end Jake Lawler, left. Friday night, South Mecklenburg will play host to Berry in SoMeck 4A football. Diedra Laird dlaird@charlotteobserver.com
“Everybody, and I really mean everybody, wanted him,” White said this week. “He does the (public address) announcing at our (junior varsity) games. That’s how sharp a kid he is.”
Lawler is 6-foot-3, 227 pounds and has run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. He bench-presses 325 pounds and squats 500, weight-lifting numbers White calls “simply impressive.”
Former Carolina Panthers lineman Sean Gilbert, a former South Mecklenburg assistant coach, marvels at how well Lawler uses his hands to create angles and knock linemen out of his way.
“Jake plays with what I call an intelligent abandon,” White said. “He’s extremely aggressive but yet he’s under control. It’s a tough game and he plays a tough position, and he gets the best offensive lineman every week, and yet he still gets it done.”
Lawler missed the Sabres’ first game with a hand injury, but has made 33 tackles and seven sacks in four games.
But three years ago, he said he nearly quit football.
Lawler made South Meck’s varsity as a freshman and competed against future collegians such as Providence’s Bentley Spain (North Carolina) and Ardrey Kell’s Mason Veal (North Carolina) in the SoMeck 8 conference.
“I was very raw and this was back when the (conference) was insanely talented,” Lawler said of the offensive linemen. “Every week, it was a new stud. I was not being very successful and it was really frustrating. But coach Gilbert told me to stick with it. At the end of my ninth-grade year, he said something good will come out of it.”
Lawler began hitting his stride as a sophomore and drew heavy college attention as a junior, when he had 85 tackles and set a school record with 13 sacks. He committed to North Carolina in January after attending a Tar Heels basketball game in Chapel Hill.
"Coach (Gene) Chizik pulled me to the side and said, ‘You’re our No. 1 priority (in the class of 2017) and we want you more than anybody else,” Lawler recalls the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator saying. "Coach (Larry) Fedora said the same thing. When we were talking he said, ‘We think about you more than anyone in the 2017 class and want you to be a part of this family.’ I said, ‘I want to be a part of it, too.’ "
Follow
Jake Lawler @Jakelawler42#GDTBATH
3:03 PM - 31 Jan 2016
Lawler said he didn’t intend to commit that weekend, but the pull of the Tar Heels has always been there. His parents - Andy and Michelle - are UNC graduates who were married in Chapel Hill.
Recently, Andy, an assistant principal at Northwest School of the Arts, tweeted that the Lawlers were so committed to the Tar Heels’ football team they painted their front door Carolina blue, and there’s a picture of Jake in front of it.
View image on Twitter
Follow
(((Andy Lawler))) @ALawler007How committed is @Jakelawler42 to UNC? We painted our door Carolina Blue! @InsideCarolina @Boss_Martin247@AM_UNCFootball @CoachBrewerUNC
“When I stepped on campus for the first time,” Jake Lawler said, “it felt like home. And, of course, it would be nice for my parents to see their kid in Carolina blue. But it’s just everything about their program. First, it’s a top-flight education, the whole staff is great, with coach Chizik being the defensive coordinator and coach Fedora is great and (assistant) coach (Gunter) Brewer is one of the best people I know. It’s a great fit.”
South Meck coach White believes the Tar Heels are getting a player who will contribute immediately
“He’s very, very mature for his age, he’s very organized and he’s got a tremendous work ethic,” White said of Lawler. “And that’s not even talking about his athletic ability.
“He’s the total package. He’s as good an athlete, student and person that I’ve ever coached in all my years, and I started back with (coach) Bruce Hardin (at West Charlotte) in 1982.”
