By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
It’s hot. Ninety-degrees hot. That sticky, wet, warm-water-bottle hot. As happens in mid-June.
Arkell Smith is lying on a cart of sorts in the shade in the ninety-degree, sticky hot. It’s the Parkview 7-on-7 Tournament, the unofficial hottest day of every year. Smith is attempting a nap before the day’s bracket portion. It’s cool in the shade. Call the decision instinct.
One year ago, Smith wasn’t here. The then rising junior had just wrapped up track season at Carthage. Before that, it was basketball. But it never was football. Not so much as two-hand touch in the street. He walked the halls at Carthage as a sort of diamond in the rough. So, Jon Guidie dug.
For two years, the long-time Tigers coach saw Smith jump in track. Saw him run too. Smith is one of the best triple-jumpers and high jumpers in the state, and a relay anchor on top of that. He saw him perform on the hardwood in the winter. And through it all, he saw a star wide receiver in waiting.
“We worked on him for two years and finally got him out his junior year,” Guidie said. But it took more than words from Guidie and the history of Carthage’s decorated football program to pull Smith into football cleats.
“What motivated me to play is I had my best friend play in Corben [Pugh],” Smith, a little groggy from waking from his cat nap and sauntering over to a couch under the Parkview bleachers, said. “He was just saying how fun it was. And then I had our quarterback last year in Keith Guest telling me how good we could be if we played together, and that’s really what started it.”
Immediately, Smith had the speed and the vertical. The difficult part came in adjusting to route running. And knowing how to get yourself open. That was what made the transition tough, or at least was supposed to.
“It all feels pretty easy to me.”
Alright. For Smith, it’s easy. Now a rising senior, Smith carries around that sort of lackadaisical confidence only the truly gifted athletes possess.
“I just think being athletic as I am that it’s just natural.”
With one year in the books, that was mostly the case. Smith finished his rookie season with 47 catches, 881 yards, 11 touchdowns and an all-state selection, tallying over half the yards (1,720) and touchdowns (20) tossed by Guest. That combo helped Carthage to 10 wins and a COC-Large title. Guidie said himself he had “an outstanding season” while balancing that praise with an understanding of where Smith still is in his fledgling football career.
“It was all kind of new to him,” Guidie said. “Now he’s finally beginning to understand how to run routes. How to get himself open. How to attack the ball in the air.
“We knew he was an athlete, but it takes a special kind of talent to be able to get yourself open, and he’s learning how to do that. He still has some area for improvement, but he’s already night-and-day from last year.”
Day-and-night. Night-and-day. Either way, if the 6-foot-1 Smith has improved to any great extent from a season ago, that’s scary for the COC-Large.
“I had a lot of time to work with one-on-ones last year, and then having the whole summer this year has really helped a lot,” Smith said.
Zeke Sappington will be stepping in under center this year with Guest having graduated. Standing at 6’2”, 190 pounds, Sappington has good height, good legs and a good arm with something more than a good wide receiver to throw to.
“This offense has the chance to be really good,” Smith said of a team that averaged 32.6 points per game in 2016. “Our defense can shut people down and our offense can score every possession, it seems like.”
Do they feel unstoppable?
“So far,” Smith said, all while recognizing that there’s still work to be done.
“This season is a success if we all just keep working hard together and do the little things we’re supposed to do,” he said. “It all adds up. Just keep on building and getting better every single practice.”
It’s a simple equation, put that way. And under Friday night’s lights in a brand new multi-million dollar stadium in Carthage on Aug. 18, the test begins.
