On Campus: Lake Wylie Chargers

CLOVER | The inaugural season for the Lake Wylie Chargers begins in 2026 under coach Nick Pelham, who comes to the Catawba River Region from White Knoll in the Midlands. The Chargers practiced on the 9th grade campus of Clover High School on Friday afternoon last week, with the expected move into the brand new campus in northwestern York County scheduled for July 1.   The main focus right now for Pelham and the Chargers as they start things from the ground up is getting their mindset in the right place.   “The Lake Wylie area, that used to be the Clover area, we have to have a whole change in mentality. We're not out here to condition. We're not here to run around. This is football. Champions are made in May, June and July. Especially in June and July. I know everybody loves vacations. I know everybody loves to do other sports. I know everybody loves to do other things. But if you want to be a great football team, you're going to be here four days a week, and practice two hours a day – Monday through Thursday (in) June and July,” Pelham told Prep Redzone SC last week.   The Chargers spent a large chunk of time during our visit to practice late last week installing and putting in concepts with some live work mixed in as they continue to build towards their inaugural contest in August. Pelham told us the roster will be mostly made up of 75 to 80 percent rising freshman and sophomores.    One of the few juniors who will be up front on both lines of scrimmage is LJ Evans – he has good physical makeup and good hand usage in some of the drill work that we saw. Another guy up front to keep your eye on is Caleb Therrien – he has a good first step moving to block the opposing linemen with good knee bend as well. Stefano Agudello had a good pull block to be able to pick up the first threat while walking through a drill with the offensive linemen.   On offense, [player_tooltip player_id='1827423' first='Rhyan' last='Watson'] will be one of the leaders at receiver – he made a great snag on a catch with a good burst of speed after making the catch and has really solid hands. Pelham said he'll move around to some other spots defensively as well. At quarterback, [player_tooltip player_id='1702099' first='Beckett' last='Rudnick'] made a good throw on a corner route to [player_tooltip player_id='1824405' first='Kipton' last='Higginbotham']. Rudnick showed good pocket presence in the process. Later in the session, Higginbotham did a good job of running his route fully over top of the defensive back to where he couldn't make a play on it. Lauson Allizzi has a good release on his throws and looked fluid during the install period. [player_tooltip player_id='1612450' first='Landon' last='Robinson'] (pictured above) comes over from Clover's JV team last year, who is athletic and can make plays in the quarterback run game. He has a solid velocity on him and can get it to where his receivers can catch it. Pelham says Robinson has great eyes and sees where the ball needs to go.   Other guys who caught our eye at the skill positions offensively include Jaylen Murray, who showed great hands to catch the ball and get up field quickly. Mason Anderson did a good job anticipating the ball coming and making the catch. Anderson has soft hands and gets up field. At running back, Dezzy Crawford is athletic and quick when he gets in the open field. He showed good vision during an inside run drill and hands on a pass out to the flat – he quickly got up field. Trel Thompson showed good lateral movement and did a good job making his cuts at the right time during an individual period. Kaden Kiefer did a good job of finding the green grass for a completion. Later on Kiefer did a good job of working back to the ball and catching it with his eyes and hands. Kalil Roy Choudhurri showed good hands to catch a quick pass on a designed rollout early on in practice. Xander Williams looked the ball into his hands first prior to turning up field and getting yards, which was impressive to see.   On defense, Cayden Gribble, whose name we heard several times while we were out there, had a good knock down to prevent a completion from his defensive line spot. [player_tooltip player_id='1301753' first='Torri' last='Wiggins'] did a good job of getting in the throwing lane and disrupting the timing for an incompletion late in the session.   While Pelham knows there will be growing pains as things kick off in August, he is excited about building the program over the next few years.   “I love how our kids are responding, the group that we have, man. They're so eager to learn, so eager to please and so eager to do great things. I'm happy about that. We've got to make sure all of the adults understand what's expected of them, players know what's expected of them. I think things will fall into place. Obviously, this year's going to be rough. With no seniors, we're a young, inexperienced team. One, maybe two guys have ever played a varsity snap. There's going to be some growing pains. Don't get me wrong. But for us to experience some growth, we've got to be here every day. If we can be here every day and we can get to next offseason, I think we're going to build something great here in the next couple of years.”

CLOVER | The inaugural season for the Lake Wylie Chargers begins in 2026 under coach Nick Pelham, who comes to the Catawba River Region from White Knoll in the Midlands. The Chargers practiced on the 9th grade campus of Clover High School on Friday afternoon last week, with the expected move into the brand new campus in northwestern York County scheduled for July 1.