Quincey McAdoo had never met Dax Courtney in person. They’d texted one another plenty.
Courtney, a three-star tight end, had committed to the University of Arkansas in August and was doing all he could to convince McAdoo to join him as a Razorback.
Eventually, it worked. The four-star wideout announced in April he was flipping his commitment from Florida State to Arkansas, but the pair expected they’d have to wait until fall of 2022 to play together.
Then, McAdoo started to hear the rumblings.
“We hit it off really well and there was a rumor going around that [Dax] was coming to our school,” McAdoo said. “So I asked him, and he said there was a big possibility his dad was getting the head coaching job.”
That possibility came to fruition earlier this spring when Mark Courtney was hired as Clarendon’s football coach, replacing Dusty Meek at the helm of the Lions. While Clarendon is going to have to wait a little while longer to get its pair of standout pass catchers on the field together — McAdoo was sidelined Friday at the Shootout of the South at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock due to a knee injury — the pair already have begun to envision what it’ll be like to share the field this fall.
“It’s definitely going to be something to watch,” Dax Courtney said. “It’s going to be big-time.”
The plan wasn’t to move for Dax’s final high school season. Mark Courtney coached both Dax and his older son, Seth, at DeWitt, where he took over as head coach in 2015.
But issues with the DeWitt administration led him to look into other opportunities, and when the chance to pair the two future Hogs opened up, it made the Clarendon job that much more attractive.
“It’s really rewarding but it’s really hard,” Mark Courtney said of coaching his sons. “I don’t want people to think, ‘Well, he’s getting [special treatment] because of his dad.’ At the same time, to be around your kid every day and get to watch him grow as both a football player and a man, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
It also helped the Courtneys that the move wasn’t far. Clarendon is 35 miles north of DeWitt, and Mark Courtney has spent plenty of time around eastern Arkansas, previously coaching at Dumas and East Poinsett County.
That doesn’t mean that everything is going to be easy.
Dropping down from a Class 4A school to a Class 2A program means Mark Courtney is going to have fewer bodies to work with. The Lions expect to have between 20 and 25 players on their roster this fall, which means Dax will play safety alongside McAdoo in addition to his usual spot on the offensive side of the ball.
Clarendon suffered from a similar issue during Friday’s action at the 7-on-7 event. With just 10 players, the Lions lost all five of their pool-play games. After putting up decent fights in their first two contests, Clarendon scored just seven points over its final three, getting outscored 79-7 by the trio of El Dorado, Conway and Lonoke.
Still, those in attendance could see the talent the Lions are adding in Dax Courtney. The 6-6, 212-pound tight end made a pair of slick touchdown grabs through double teams against Stigler (Okla.).
McAdoo expects to be back on the field soon, and he’s confident Clarendon will take a leap this season. Although the Lions entered the playoffs at 7-3 a year ago, they were easily dispatched by eventual Class 2A champion Fordyce in the opening round.
“If they double both [me and Dax], somebody is going to be open and we’re going to win some games,” McAdoo said. “If they’re one-on-one us, we’re going to win some games. We’re going to do something big in 2A. I really think we’re the biggest contender for a state championship.”