Public to Private: Bryce Sain's football career continues at Christ School

ARDEN – Bryce Sain’s life has changed drastically from this time last year.

His childhood bedroom in Bryson City has been traded for a dorm room and a roommate at Christ School. He now wears a mask as he walks the halls to class, and before he can enter a room, a thermometer is placed near his forehead to make sure he’s healthy enough to attend. Sain is given a daily bracelet to show he’s cleared to play sports – a precaution born out of the current pandemic.

“It’s what we do every day,” said Sain, who transferred from Swain County in January and reclassified to Christ School as a junior after a successful three-year football career with the Maroon Devils. “This is the new normal.”

The one thing that has not changed for Sain – unlike his public school counterparts – is that he’ll play football in the fall.

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Christ School opens the 2020 football season at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25 at home against Rabun Gap (Ga.), one of the handful of private school teams to play in North Carolina despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Asheville School will also begin its season Friday, hosting Lakeway Christian Academy at 7 p.m.

In August, the public school football season was moved to February by the N.C. High School Athletic Association.

“It was a very tough decision to leave Swain County,” Sain said. “But I don’t regret it. This was the right choice for me, and yeah, it really stinks that they (public schools) can’t play right now, but I’m excited for the opportunity.”

Sain finished his junior season at Swain County with 832 rushing yards and nine touchdowns despite missing six games because of a right hamstring injury. He’ll be the Greenies' starting running back Friday night after former starter Pierce Hammonds left Christ School and returned to play in his home state of Tennessee.

“I’ve worked really hard for this moment,” Sain said. “I’m ready to show what I can do.”

Swain County connection in Asheville

Sain spent the summer training his body for a different kind of offense. Swain County is famous for its run-heavy veer option formation while Christ School’s offense runs a spread formation, usually out of the shotgun.

Sain needed to get faster and work on his routes from the running back position. He found two workout partners, both former Christ School standouts, who pushed him to the next level.

Every weekend, Sain would meet at T.C. Roberson High School and run routes with Kaedin Robinson, now a Central Florida commit, and catch passes from Navy Shuler, who is a current redshirt freshman quarterback at Appalachian State.

More:Navy Shuler forges own path at Christ School with support of NFL father

Shuler’s father, Heath Shuler, won three state titles at Swain County as a quarterback in the late 1980s before becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist at the University of Tennessee and a first-round draft pick for the Washington Redskins in 1994.

“Navy texted me one day, kind of out of the blue, and invited me to come through and work out with them,” Sain said. “After that, we became very close friends. I learned a lot about football from both of those guys.”

Sain also spent time working out with Christ School senior wide receiver Cade Mintz, another public school transfer who left Cherokee High School in December 2018. Mintz is ranked as a three-star wide receiver, according to 247Sports.com.

More:North Carolina private schools set tentative date for start of football season

Christ School enters the season with four players who have committed to play college football, including LB/WR Lex Long (University of Virginia), OL Ian Adam (The Citadel), DL/TE Charlie Browder (UCF) and DB/WR Painter Richards-Baker (Dartmouth College).

“We’ve got a lot of talent on this team,” said Sain, who has no college offers but has begun garnering interest from local programs. “But we know we won’t win games as individuals; we have to do it as a team. That’s our focus: winning games.”

Christ School will face a couple familiar WNC names in its season opener. Tucker Holloway, Andrews High School’s quarterback last season, transferred to Rabun Gap in August. Coleman Bryson, a two-way starter for Tuscola, left for Rabun Gap in the summer of 2019.

“We’ve got an incredibly-challenging matchup with a great institution,” Christ School coach Nick Luhm said in a media release. “We have an idea of their talent, but we really won’t know until Friday. From what we can tell, they are going to be a very good football team.”

Football? Yes. Fans? No.

Although high school football will begin this week in North Carolina, there will still be some major changes to the private school season.

There will be no state championship game, a game the Greenies have played in and lost the past two years, and no fans will be allowed to attend the regular-season games, according to guidelines from the N.C Independent Schools Athletic Association.

Friday will mark the first time that Jay Sain, Bryce’s father, has missed watching his son play in person.

“It’s going to be a very tough adjustment not getting to be there and cheering for him,” Jay said. “But it’s a necessary sacrifice for him to get to have a season. This season is incredibly important to him and I want him to have that.”

Jay said he feels fortunate that he can watch the game on television and hopes that he’ll be allowed to attend a game before the season is over.

Bryce said he’ll miss having his father and family on the sideline but wants to make the most of the opportunity.

“All eyes are going to be on us,” Bryce said. “Hopefully we can put on a show.”

David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the Citizen Times. He can be reached at dthompson@citizentimes.com, at 828-231-1747, or on Twitter at @acthshuddle.