By Carey Phillips
Smoky Mountain senior Mabry Bumgarner has been named to the all-state football team, as selected by a statewide panel of sportswriters, as a long snapper.
This is the inaugural all-state team selected by the group. It’s similar to the Associated Press all-state team, which was discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike some other all-state teams, this one is not broken down by class-ification. The first team offense, defense and special teams include just 31 players, including Bumgarner.
“I’ve never coached a harder working or more determined kid than Mabry Bumgarner, and I don’t know that I ever will,” SM Coach Ricky Brindley said. “This honor is well deserved and to me even more so well earned.”
Bumgarner has accepted a preferred walk-on offer from Western Carolina.
“They are excited about him, and he has continued to work and work,” Brindley said
He said on a recent Saturday Bumgarner was at the high school at 9 a.m. to work out.
“It’s still a very specialized thing at the next level,” Brindley said of being a long snapper in college. “Very rarely is a long snapper an offensive lineman. It’s a very specific niche that kids have to work on daily, and he does. He’s out there on the field or in the weight room.”
“When I found out, I was excited of course and proud of everything I’ve done over the years working hard late at night and early in the morning,” Bumgarner said of his reaction to making the team. “It means a lot to be someone who is honored from not only Smoky Mountain High School but also Jackson County and Western North Carolina.”
Bumgarner recalled that he only weighed about 150 pounds as a freshman and didn’t have a spot on the JV football team.
“The only way I could see myself getting playing time was at long snapper because my brother did that at Smoky Mountain,” he said. “I came to love the idea of long snapping and the game of football.
“The key to long snapping is to be mentally focused and mentally disciplined,” Bumgarner said. “Just like a person who leads a choir you have to spend hours and hours of work to get that perfect and complete the operation.”
He said the only time a long snapper is noticed is when he messes up on a punt, extra point or field goal. He said any mistake has to be immediately put in the past.
“I just see it as flushing it down the drain whether in a game or in practice,” he said. “I just try to get it out of my mind. You always have to have the ‘next play’ mentality.”
