Turner Wood '24 Recruiting Profile

My high school team, Hickory High School (NC), just completed a perfect 16-0 season and won the North Carolina 3-A State Championship in Chapel Hill. Our final 3 wins were over previously undefeated and higher ranked schools. This amazing season has reinforced my desire to be a college student-athlete and play football at the college level. As an inside linebacker I led my team in tackles and tackles for loss this season. I was also the backup quarterback, played special teams and was the holder on extra points and field goals. I also played in the offensive backfield playing mostly as a blocker in special short yardage offensive sets. 

The biggest takeaway from this amazing State Championship season was what can be accomplished when players focus on the success of the team over individual success. Being a Team Captain allowed me to be a leader and roll model to our younger players in this regard as a majority of our starters were Juniors. I would like to be in a program that is consistently focused on building and maintaining their program from the ground up. I played on our varsity team as a Freshman and we were winless that year, so I have first-hand experience in the value to that approach and the importance of having a good team chemistry which develops over a period of years.

My Junior season, I started the year playing linebacker having transitioned from playing quarterback the year before. I played the first 5 games at linebacker but after an injury to our starting quarterback I moved back to the quarterback position and started the next 4 games. During that time I was 50 of 81 passing with 766 passing yards and 8 passing touchdowns. I also had 113 yards rushing in that span with 1 rushing touchdown. So I finished the season with 879 total yards of offense, 9 touchdowns, and 3 two-point conversions. The coaches recognized my willingness to do whatever I could to help the team by awarding me the "Team Before Self Award" at our fall banquet.

My sophomore football season I had 1,919 passing yards, 2,075 all-purpose yards, and 23 passing touchdowns.  As a sophomore quarterback, I was able to lead my team through the ups and downs throughout the season, through a coaching change, and to the first winning season for Hickory High School since 2012.  Our team had a huge turnaround from 0-7 last year (spring season due to Covid) to 7-5 this season and advancing to the second round of the state play-offs.  

Finally, to end my high school career by being named to the HSOT 2023 NC All-State Football Team is such an honor. I am thankful that I was able to represent my brothers and coaches on the team one last time.