Big plays define Smithfield-Selma's Snead

On 28 running plays, the Garner defense held Smithfield-Selma's Josh Snead to 42 yards two weeks ago.

But on the other two carries, Snead bolted 43 and 80 yards for touchdowns. He finished with 30 carries for 165 yards, a small part of the 1,499 yards he has gained this season.

Garner went into the game with the idea of stopping Snead and therefore stopping SSS. For much of the game, the Trojans did so. But Snead kept banging and eventually made big plays.

"What you have to do is keep giving 110 percent on every play even if you're not gaining much," Snead said. "If the other 10 guys step up, too, something good is going to happen eventually. But you have to keep trying all the time because you don't know when a big play is coming."

Snead is an explosive runner. He has scored seven touchdowns on runs of 40 yards or more. He also has 80- and 89-yard kickoff returns and has returned a blocked field-goal attempt 71 yards for a winning touchdown.

"I tell him that he needs to run every play as if it is going to be blocked perfectly," SSS coach Anthony Barbour said. "Most times it is not going to be blocked perfectly, but the one time that it is, you have to take advantage of it and take it to the house."

Snead sometimes makes the long runs look easy, but the 5-foot-7, 175-pound senior has paid for every touchdown.

For years, he played in older age groups in the youth leagues. He was faster and stronger than the kids his age, and he was almost always sent to play with the bigger boys.

And he has worked at being fast and powerful since he was a little fellow.

Terrance Snead, his father, remembers Josh running through recently plowed fields.

"There was a big sweet potato field behind the house," Terrance Snead said. "He'd be out there every day running in the loose dirt, trying to be faster. He was always working to get better and faster."

Part of the payment for the big plays came last summer when he worked out with Tavarus Young, a personal trainer who Barbour had coached years ago at Erwin Triton.

"He usually charges to work with people, but he didn't charge me," Josh Snead said. "It was really uplifting that someone would do all the work to just help someone."

The day started at 5:30 a.m. and continued for most of the day. Snead added more than 30 pounds to his bench press to more than 300 pounds, and he thinks he cut his 40 time from his best of 4.35 last year, although he hasn't been clocked this fall.

"He came up to me at a game and said he thought he could help Josh," Terrance Snead said. "They worked all summer. Josh would work out with him Monday through Friday and come home on the weekends."

The workouts were comprehensive and included going into a dark room and following a laser dot with his eyes to improve his peripheral vision.

"I told Josh that he had to be in the best condition of his life," Barbour said. "He was going to get the ball. Last year, he carried the ball 10 or 11 times a game. This year, we were going to run the ball, and he was going to run it.

"He played offense and defense last year, but [we] just play him on offense now. Last year, he was like a home run hitter with half a tank of gas. This year, we try to keep him fresh."

Snead also has paid for success by disciplining himself.

He loves to ride his Kawasaki ZX 1000cc motorcycle but has curtailed his joyrides.

"With the scholarship and everything, my mother doesn't like me to ride that much," he said.

Snead had his choice of scholarships but has made a verbal commitment to Duke. He said he is committed to the Blue Devils but has not given up the option of visiting other schools, primarily North Carolina, Clemson and Wake Forest.

Barbour and his father expect he will end up at Duke, although Josh Snead has the academics to go just about anywhere he wants. He has a 4.3 overall grade point average on a 4.0 scale with extra credit for advanced courses.

"I made the honor roll or something when I was in the third grade," Snead recalled. "My father said, 'No excuses now. We expect you to be on the honor roll every time from now on.' "

And he has been.

Snead also got some advice from Barbour, who rushed for 3,125 yards and scored 47 touchdowns during his senior year at Garner in 1987.

Snead watched a tape of Barbour in Garner's 40-21 state championship win over Charlotte Harding. Barbour rushed for 265 yards on 23 carries and scored on runs of 60, 55, 5 and 50 yards.

"He could do it," Snead said. "He told me the biggest thing was giving your best effort every time you carried the ball."

The key to Snead's season, Barbour said, is that the senior has kept trying.

"The year hasn't been as good as we had expected," said Barbour, whose club is 3-5 overall but 2-2 in the Greater Neuse River 4-A. "But Josh has been a leader. He has kept working and kept making a great effort."

In Snead's mind, the next big play is just a snap away.

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