The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1343401
MARCH/APRIL 2021 ■ 37 There were plenty of reasons why NC State head coach Dave Doeren would want to watch East Forsyth High, from Kernersville, N.C., play in its 2019 state championship game. The program was not only the defending champion, it had sent safety Khalid Martin to the Wolfpack in the previous year's recruit- ing class and had more talent in the pipeline, including four-star wide receiver Micah Crowell, who eventually signed with NC State in 2021. But on this particular December afternoon, Doeren's reasons were more personal: his son was a member of the opponent, Raleigh's Car- dinal Gibbons. Nevertheless, Doeren still had a list of players to watch, provided by Billy Glasscock, NC State's director of player personnel. Not included, apparently, was a blossoming star junior defensive lineman named Zyun Reeves. "I was watching the game, and this kid just kept making plays," Doeren recalled. "I'm looking at the roster and I'm like, 'Who is this guy?' Because I had a list of players to watch in the game from our recruiting staff. "He made a bunch of plays, and so as the game went on I'm tex- ting Billy and the staff, 'Who is this guy?' He's making plays and sacking the quarterback. He looks gigantic. They had him listed at 6-7, or 6-6, whatever it was." What NC State found out was Reeves — now listed at 6-7 and 265 pounds — was primarily a basketball player before trying football as a junior, and Doeren was seeing Reeves show his immense potential. By the end of the 2019 season, Reeves had started to dominate. He had 7.5 tackles for loss and six sacks over the final five weeks of the year. He finished the campaign with 13.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks among his 88 stops, in addition to eight pass deflections and two forced fumbles. "You could just see coaches were like, 'Who is this guy?'" East Forsyth head coach Todd Willert noted. "A lot of times you tell college coaches you've got a 6-7 guy, they think the high school coaches are lying and think, 'Okay, he's about 6-4, 6-5.' "When they got their eyes on Zyun and saw he could move, he just impressed a lot of guys." Reeves chose NC State over offers from Florida State, Michigan State, South Carolina and Virginia, but Willert is convinced that under normal circumstances, Reeves would have blown up dramati- cally during the spring evaluation period that was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. "His recruiting would have been out of the roof," Willert opined. "… The thing that really slowed him down was not having spring ball and all the COVID stuff. I think if he had went through spring ball, he would have been one of those guys with 40 or 50 offers." NC State defensive line coach Charley Wiles cannot wait to coach Reeves, whom he noted had "unlimited potential." "You got a really nice package," Wiles added of Reeves. — Matt Carter Signee Spotlight Reeves did not play football until his junior year of high school, when he exploded onto the scene with 88 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN Converted Basketball Player Zyun Reeves Has 'Unlimited Potential'