ROCKINGHAM — A local youth football team is raising money for a national competition as it heads to the state finals.
The Raider Elite 12U team is playing for the North Carolina AAU state championship Nov. 16 in High Point, according to John Carter, president of the program.
“Win or lose, the top two teams qualify for nationals,” Carter said, adding he thinks the team has a good chance of winning this weekend.
“The team we’re playing, we beat earlier in the season at home by 20-something points,” Carter said. “If it don’t change, we should win a state championship two years in a row.
For the nationals trip, the team will drive down on a Sunday and return the following Saturday.
Last year, both the 10U — the same team currently vying for the state title — and 12U teams qualified. Carter said the 10U team was up by 14 points “but gave it away in the second half.”
“So they’ve got a chip on their shoulder this year to go down there and bring it back,” Carter said.
The Raider Elite program featured more than 85 young players this year, including 36 on the roster for the 12U team.
Carter is president of the program and has stepped back a bit while commissioner Derrick Watkins runs the day-to-day operations, dealing with the coaches, parents and practices.
Carter said the enrollment wasn’t quite as high as he was expecting, adding basketball seemed more popular with the success of Paul McNeil Jr., who is now playing for N.C. State University.
“Now that football has come back around to being the main sport right now at the high school, I think we should have over a hundred-something kids next year,” Carter said.
Laron Ellerbe has been coaching the 12U boys since they were 6 years old, according to Carter, so the team has been playing together for several years.
Raider Elite is considered a feeder program to cultivate talent on the gridiron.
“The plan is to get them boys to high school and win the championships,” Carter said.
The team is soliciting donations for the national competition in Florida — “Anything from a dollar, two dollars, anything they want to give.”
Carter can be reached at 910-995-0385 or raidereliteyouth@gmail.com. The program has also set up a Cash App account at $raider12u.
