The road to Maplesville is carved into a world of green.
Sprawling farmland to the east and south. Rolling pines to the west.
And to the north?
About a mile from the couple-block downtown is Maplesville High, a K-12 school serving a town of about 700 residents. Maybe 1,300 if surrounding areas are included.
And behind the school sits Red Devil Stadium.
There’s a new concession stand, new restrooms, and a new press box that holds crisp, recently installed speakers. Veteran coach Brent Hubbert, a prodigal son of sorts, might love those speakers most of all.
It’s a spot for the faithful fan base to watch the next two years of a quiet prodigy: Nehemiah McCary.
They call him Nemo.
To the outside, Maplesville High may not seem like much compared to some of the shrines to football that are scattered throughout the South.
But this monument isn’t modest, depending on what matters.
Looking around at the seven rows of chunky cement bleachers, Chilton County superintendent Corey Clements proudly states that they’ll be packed and it’ll be standing-room only in just a few Fridays.
“Football is big, here,” Clements said with a smile.
McCary will be the main attraction, which has been the case since he was eclipsing 1,000 rushing yards on the varsity squad back in the eighth grade.
Now a rising junior, McCary isn’t beloved just by Maplesville.
Shoot, college coaches near and far are smitten with the idea of McCary. Emphasis on the near as McCary is currently leaning towards three programs, two of them in his home state of Alabama: Auburn, and Alabama.
The third for the country’s top-ranked linebacker prospect is Florida. Leaving the state isn’t optimal, but it isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for McCary.
“Just not too far,” McCary said, almost sheepishly.
One state over might be the limit.
McCary is a man of few words. Frankly, it’s part of the appeal. In an ecosystem where branding and following seem to matter more and more, McCary isn’t interested in all that.
Nope. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker prospect — Alabama and Auburn like him as an edge defender, technically, Florida as a ‘backer — might humbly brag about being good at CFB27. He plays on Heisman mode, you know.
But really, that’s about the most boastfulness you’ll get from him. He’s a gentle giant, hulking and humble.
His place of comfort is Red Devil Field.
Or maybe on his dad’s zero-turn riding mower.
Back to that green that surrounds most of Maplesville…
“I love cutting grass,” McCary said.
He’s done it since he was 12, helping his father mow the yards of friends and neighbors. McCary is cutting about 3-4 yards a week, soaking in the smell of fresh-cut grass and residual gasoline while taking pride in his straight-line precision.
“If he was a jerk, you’d think he was lying, trying to sound good,” said Hubbert, who overheard McCary’s conversation about cutting the grass. “He’s not. He means it.”
Hubbert followed in his father’s footsteps as the Maplesville head coach and won three state titles in a row in the mid 2010s before taking a prestigious job at Brewton T.R. Miller in the southern part of the state. He returned to Maplesville last year as basically an offensive analyst before returning to the head role as Maplesville needed a replacement following the prior coach’s retirement.
He went 166-26 in his first tenure at Maplesville, and then 58-18 at T.R. Miller, making the playoffs every season. Hubbert has seen some good ones in his time.
McCary might be the best he’s had.
One day, Hubbert sent a picture of an offensive formation to a coaching friend of his. Early in the installation phase of the scheme, he bemoaned the slow start to preseason camp and let his anxieties crawl to what ifs, like what it’d be like if he failed to meet Maplesville’s standard of winning, and winning big.
Those fears seem to fuel Hubbert, who’s all smiles until he’s frowning, and a bit of a perfectionist (his playlist, created to appease the home crowd, was a methodical process).
The coaching friend took one look at who was at running back for Hubbert in the photo. There was Nemo.
“I think you’re going to be just fine,” he said.
On The Backroads is a column documenting the stories and recruitments of prospects from the South.
In this edition, we go through the bright present and future at Alabama powerhouse Alabaster Thompson High, go into a prediction for Oklahoma to land a 2028 four-star WR, and list out the favorites of four-star safety CJ Craig-James.
