Panthers welcome local schools to kick off Keep Pounding High School classic
The Carolina Panthers welcomed four high schools to Bank of America Stadium on Wednesday to preview the 2025 Keep Pounding High School Classic presented by Belk. The participants feature defending state champions and title contenders and as Panthers play-by-play announcer and Wednesday’s host Anish Shroff pointed out, “All four schools participating have state championship aspirations.”
Scheduled for Friday, August 22, the Keep Pounding High School Classic will once again be a doubleheader event, this year featuring matchups between the Hough Huskies and South Pointe Stallions (4:00PM kickoff) and the Grimsley Whirlies versus the West Charlotte Lions (8:00PM kickoff). General admission tickets are $8 and available now via Ticketmaster.com.
“The Carolina Panthers are proud to partner with Belk to kick off the high school football season with two exciting matchups that highlight the important role football plays in bringing communities together,” said Kristi Coleman, CEO of Tepper Sports & Entertainment and President of the Carolina Panthers. “This year’s Keep Pounding High School Classic will be a great showcase of school spirit and competitive play, featuring four talented programs from both North and South Carolina.”
South Pointe will make the short trip from Rock Hill, South Carolina for the kickoff game to represent the iconic Stallions.
“When you’re in Rock Hill, it’s just a different place when it comes to football, you know, it’s Football City, USA,” said Stallions coach Bobby Collins.
“We’ve had multiple NFL guys to come out here and and fortunately for us, some of those guys have been also able to play here at the Panthers at one point in their career. So we’re excited for the city. We’re excited about playing at 4 o’clock and selling the stadium out before the 8 o’clock game. It’d be a great, great experience for everybody to come out and watch you play.”
While Hough and Grimsley won’t be facing off in the Keep Pounding Classic, the day will feature the two teams who faced off in the state semifinals last season. Grimsley knocked the Huskies out of the playoffs, giving Hough an edge they’re bringing into this season, starting in Charlotte on August 22.
“We don’t talk about last year. Last year is last year,” said coach David Baker of Hough.
“We got to have an edge. We practice hard, our effort is there every day. So I just feel like the chip that we have on our shoulder that, everybody’s saying all this, they can’t get it done, they can’t do this, you know, we just keep playing back right here.”
The title chase and history was evident during the event in good natured ribbing between the coaches, as coach Baker and coach Sam Greiner of West Charlotte promised to see each other in the playoffs, and coach Darryl Brown of Grimsley asked if the Whirlies could join the Lions pep rally and fish fry ahead of the game.
