By Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Zane Rupe’s 2020 fall football season at Radford High School might have been derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Wednesday he announced his commitment to play college ball next
“I chose Emory because not only do they have a great football program, they have a great school and it is a great place for me to further my education,” Rupe said.
In 2019, Rupe was 59 of 128 passing for 878 yards with nine touchdowns. He also rushed for 953 yards on 132 carries with 16 touchdowns.
Like so many other student-athletes, the pandemic has turned Rupe’s playing career upside down.
“COVID has certainly put a setback on not only me but all of 2021 recruits. It has pushed back our senior season and has put us at a disadvantage from other high schools in other states that played in the fall,” Rupe said.
E&H recruited Rupe as a quarterback, and he expects to play that position in college. The school recently announced a move to the Division II football ranks, joining the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) in all of its NCAA-sanctioned sports. If the move from Division III to Division II is approved, the Wasps would earn provisional status in the fall of 2021 with plans to play a full conference schedule for the 2022 season.
The addition of Emory Henry will increase the number of SAC members to 14. The SAC currently consists of teams from South Carolina (Anderson, Coker, Newberry, Limestone), North Carolina (Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Mars Hill, Queens University of Charlotte, Wingate), Tennessee (Carson- Newman, Lincoln Memorial, Tusculum), and Virginia (The University of Virginia’s College at Wise).
A move to the SAC will create drastically shorter travel distances for road competitions that translate into less time that student-athletes will miss in the classroom. In the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, of which E&H was a member, the closest conference road competition for the Wasps was Roanoke College, which is one hour and 45 minutes from the Emory campus. The most distant was Virginia Wesleyan University at nearly six hours. In the SAC, the Wasps will have to travel just over an hour to UVA-Wise, with Coker University being the farthest at four hours and 30 minutes.
Curt Newsome is entering his seventh year as the head football coach at Emory & Henry. A 1982 E&H graduate, Newsome returned to his alma mater in January of 2014 with 15 years of NCAA Division I coaching experience to become the program’s 20th head coach. He has also served as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech.
This past season, the Wasps finished 7-3.
Rupe, who was the 2019 All-county/All-city player offensive player of the year as a junior, was named the All-county/All-city preseason player of the year for the missing season which will now be played in the spring. Last year, he was also named the All-purpose player on the Three Rivers District first-team.
The Bobcats finished 8-2 in the regular season as Rupe helped lead the team to another state playoff run.
His goal for the upcoming “spring” football season is again to take goal of becoming an athletic trainer. At E&H, he will join former Christiansburg running back and linebacker Matson Stanley and former Hidden Valley quarterback Grayson Carroll.