By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SPENCER  — North Rowan’s big-play receiver Amir Alexander recently signed with Chowan University.

That was Alexander’s best move of the year and put a smile on a lot of people’s faces. The widest grin was worn by North Rowan head coach Josh Sophia.

Almost 30 years ago, Sophia headed from his hometown of Leesburg, Va., to Chowan College, a school in Murfreesboro, that had just moved up from a two-year junior college to a four-year institution.

Sophia played with distinction for the football team on the offensive line for the Hawks from 1993-96. He got his degree and eventually became a fixture in the high school coaching ranks.

Now Sophia can watch two players that he coached in high school play for Chowan.

Sophia’s coaching stop prior to North Rowan was at Camden High, and Camden quarterback J’ron Pendleton also is part of Chowan’s recruiting class.

Chowan is going through a head-coaching change. Previous Chowan head coach Mark Hall was hired to lead UNC Pembroke’s program. Hall’s successor at Chowan is Paul Johnson, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Bloomsburg.

Chowan also is going through a dramatic conference change. While Chowan will compete against Gulf South Conference schools in 2024, when the fall of 2025 rolls around, Chowan plans to be part of a group of schools playing football in Conference Carolinas. That league will include schools such as Barton, Erskine, UNC Pembroke, North Greenville and Shorter.

“Chowan is in a program reboot,” Sophia said.

Alexander should be able to help. At 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, he’s a prototype big wideout. He said Chowan believes he’ll be a “Z” receiver. He’ll be lining up like an old-school flanker, going in motion often, and running a combination of deep, intermediate and crossing routes.

Ellis was a basketball-first athlete until his senior year, but he had a terrific 2023 football season for the Cavaliers.

“A year ago, I never would have believed that I’d be going to college to play football,” Alexander said. “I never expected things to turn out like this.”

Alexander, like a lot of multi-sport athletes before him, eventually made the realization that there are a million good 6-foot-3 basketball players and unless you’re an incredible shooter or defender or ball-handler you won’t stand out from the crowd.

But there’s a much smaller pool of 6-foot-3 receivers who can run routes and catch the ball. It didn’t take long for Alexander, who is the son of former North Rowan and Catawba football star Mitch Ellis, to establish himself a recruiting target as well as a pass-catching target.

“The key game for me was the Anson game (in Week 3),” Alexander said. “That was the breakout game for me, with two long touchdown catches.”

The Anson game was one of Alexander’s three 100-yard receiving games. He had to-the-house catches of 42 and 51 yards. He also topped 100 yards against Lexington and in the playoff game with Corvian Community.

A couple of weeks after the Anson breakout, North Rowan came out flat in the Central Carolina Conference opener against South Davidson and had to come from behind. Again, Alexander came through with the decisive TD catch.

“Amir’s big-play ability was critical to the success that we had,” Sophia said. “You could see his confidence growing throughout the year. He wanted the ball.”

Quarterback Jeremiah Alford delivered it to him, and Alexander responded with quite a season — 32 catches 889 yards, 11 touchdowns.

He averaged an incredible 27.8 yards per catch. When he caught one, it almost always was a big play.

He followed up North Rowan’s 11-3 football season with a solid basketball season. He was seventh in Rowan County scoring with 14.3 points per game.

“Definitely football made me a better basketball player than I had been before,” Alexander said. “I was a lot more physical.”

Alexander’s first road trip to Chowan to visit the school was a long haul that seemed to have no end, but it turned out to be worth every mile.

“That was a very long ride to Chowan,” Alexander said. “I didn’t think we’d ever get there, But once we got to the school, the campus was bigger than I expected and it looked like a very nice school.”

Alexander’s film already had made an impression on coaches who were excited about getting him signed.

“They did like my film,” Alexander said. “They liked my hands and they liked my frame.”

Alexander is staying in shape before his reporting day by helping out North Rowan’s track team. He has competed in the 200 meters, the 4×100 and the long jump.

He will have a chance to make an impact for Chowan’s football team, but he understands the priority is take advantage of his opportunity and get a degree.

He plans to major in business.