Robbinsville – With all Smoky Mountain Conference teams out of the playoff race, the division has released its annual All-Conference listings.
It comes with little surprise that Black Knights junior Cuttler Adams was voted the division’s Back of the Year, a distinction he shared with Andrews’ Isaac Weaver.
With one full season still ahead, Adams has already amassed 4,726 rushing yards as a varsity player. The school record is 6,164, set by Rylee Anderson during Robbinsville’s last state championship run in 2019.
This season alone, Adams stormed to 2,202 yards on 275 touches, crossing into the end zone 27 different times.
“He’s awesome. He works his hind end off,” Black Knights head coach Dee Walsh said. “He does things right and puts in extra time. He plays with a lot of emotion and makes the kids around him better.
Cuttler joins Robbinsville seniors Brock Adams and Carlos Lopez – as well as junior Zeke Silvers and sophomore Bryce Adams – on the official All-Conference list.
Brock wrapped up his high-school career with a fine season, reeling in 32 passes for a total of 490 yards. Five of the receptions resulted in touchdowns.
Lopez recorded 46 tackles during his Robbinsville swan song, with 18 of the drops coming on solo efforts.
Silvers became renowned for his secondary speed, ultimately stopping 71 players – and causing a halt on his own 39 times.
“Zeke had an outstanding year at defensive back,” Walsh said. “He made a lot of tackles and had good breaks on the ball.”
Bryce was called upon as the team’s quarterback after junior Donovan Carpenter sustained a broken collarbone against Cherokee on Oct. 7. Though it took the 10th-grader a few games to get comfy, he finished the season 37-of-57 on passing (65 percent), posting 581 yards in the air and five touchdowns.
He also had the second-most tackles for the Knights’ defense – 77 total, 27 solo. His defensive work is what earned him the All-Conference distinction.
“Bryce did an awesome job,” Walsh said. “He just got better and better. He gave us a lot of great games.”
Honorable mentions
The Black Knights also had four honorable mentions: Koleson Dooley, Roman Jones, Quinn Jumper and Haden Key.
Jumper led the Robbinsville defense with 86 tackles (28 solo), while Jones clocked in with 68 (28 solo). Key was a foreboding presence on the line, as well, credited with 34 tackles (14 solo). Dooley provided a breath of fresh air as needed, finishing the run with nine tackles.
Of the four, Dooley will be the only player entering his final season next year.
“Roman is a great athlete,” Walsh said. “Quinn was big for us this year. He’s steady.”
A look back
Robbinsville started the year with a 26-14 road loss to the 4A Asheville Cougars, but rebounded nicely by going 6-0 before suffering another defeat. Back-to-back losses against second-place Murphy and eventual-conference champion Andrews could have derailed morale, but the Knights picked up the pieces and pressed forward to finish in sole possession of third place.
Robbinsville was still able to host two playoff games, defeating Cherryville and Cherokee. The Knights almost clinched a fourth-round appearance, but fell in a 29-26 heartbreaker to the No. 1-seeded Eastern Randolph Wildcats.
“We make a couple of plays, we win that game and move on,” Walsh said. “We have a great group coming back; it will just depend on how hard they want to work between now and then – especially if they want to play up front.”
“We want to thank the community for always supporting us; the quarterback club and all it does, as well. The coaches here do a great job and these kids buy into the program.”