Bryson City
Heading into the 2012 football season, the Maroon Devils faced major questions at quarterback. Who would replace 2011 starter Colby Hyatt, who led his team to a 15-1 record and the school’s first ever 1AA State Championship.
Enter Cherokee transfer Raymius Smith. Smith, who threw for over 1500 yards as a Brave, has been better than advertised. After an intial shaky start in his first half against East Henderson, Smith settled into the quarterback job, and has since lead his team to a perfect 12-0 record and into the 2nd round of the NCHSAA 1AA playoffs.
Along the way he has climbed up the Swain passing charts at a steady rate. Now he stands a mere 15 yard Maennle/Tisho completion away from surpassing the 2000 yard mark in passing for the season. A remarkable accomplishment considering only one other player in school history has thrown for more than 2000 yards in a season, and his name is Shuler.
Smith’s numbers for the season put him in rare company with Heath Shuler. So far he is 110 for 169 passing for 1985 yards. His completion percentage of 65% is the highest recorded by any Swain quarterback. To top it all off he has 30 touchdown passes on the season, second most to, you guessed it, Heath Shuler’s 42. His 110 completions are again second most in a season to Shuler, who finished with 190 completions in his senior season.
To help put it in perspective of how great a season Smith is having, his season numbers are good enough to put him with the 9th best passing yardage for his career.
Speaking of career’s if you add in his Cherokee numbers, Raymius is 198 of 329 for 3511 yards and 46 touchdowns, and that is with his senior year yet to go. In case you are curious Shuler’s career numbers are 389 of 695 with 7045 yards and 73 touchdowns.
Smith has one measuring stick left he would like to take care of and that is adding a State Championship to his growing resume.