Central High School running back is chasing lofty goals

Central sophomore Cortez Stone has rushed for more than 2,100 yards through 12 games. 

By Dyuce Woodson

Kid wearing football helmet with Central logo on it
November 23, 2022–The future is bright for Central High School football. The Yellowjackets have just eight seniors on the team and are riding a seven-game winning streak heading into the Class 4A state semi-finals. 

The roster is loaded with a talented sophomore class, with one player who’s a stand-out in his own right: Cortez Stone. 

In just his second year of playing high school football, Stone has 3,500 rushing yards and 46 rushing touchdowns. This season, Stone is the state’s leader in rushing yards per game, averaging 177. He’s rushed for 2,123 yards and 25 touchdowns through 12 games. 

“My memo is just go hard every play and play every play like it’s your last play,” Stone said. “If you don’t, you’ll lose. If you do, then you’ll probably come out with a win. At least you fought.” 

This season, Stone has two 300-plus yard games. Against Logan County High School on November 18th, he ran for 363 yards and five touchdowns in a 55-19 win on the road. 

Stone already has scholarship offers from several NCAA Division-I schools, including the University of Louisville, Purdue University, and Western Kentucky University. 

He has lofty goals, and one of them includes surpassing a former Central and Western Kentucky University star – Anthony “Ace” Wales as Central’s all-time rushing leader. 

“It’s tight right now, he (Wales) is at WKU so we haven’t really been talking because he’s been coaching, and when he has the off time, he’ll come down here and talk to me or he’ll text my coach about me,” Stone said. “Right now, we can’t really talk, but when the

Jersey number two with Wales as last name
season is over, we’ll probably talk a lot.” 

Wales rushed for 8,213 yards at Central which ranks third in Kentucky High School Athletics Association history. Following his high school career, Wales led the nation in rushing touchdowns in 2016 at WKU.

According to Stone, Wales would like to see the Central sophomore move ahead of him on the state’s career rushing list. “He wants me to break it,” Stone said. “It feels good. I like that he wants me to break his record.” 

When you have a talent like Stone Central head football coach Marvin Dantzler says, it’s hard to know just how good he could truly be. 

“I think he can do pretty much anything he wants to do at this high school level if he continues,” Danztler said. “The key is how do you handle success? And we talk a lot about that around here. Luckily for me, I've had some big time high school athletes that I've coached in my career, especially when I was in Oklahoma. So I've been around it and the key is how do we handle it?”

Dantzler has coached multiple players who made it to the NFL, and he says Stone has that potential, but he’s still young. 

“He’s great to be around. He has a great sense of humor, once you get to know him,” Dantzler said. “He’s at school every day. … So he’s taking care of business not only on the field but in the classroom as well.” Dantzler added. 

While he would like to own the school’s all-time rushing title, Stone says he doesn’t really focus too much on stats during the season. Right now, he’s focused on being a part of a team that ends its season with a win and a state title at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky. 

“First, we were on a losing streak and no one wanted to believe in us, but I did,” Stone said. “So right now, it feels good to make it where we’re at.”