‘All I care about is winning’: Top NC high school quarterback ignores recruiting snub

Let’s start by deleting “gripe” from this story’s glossary. Mason Fortune’s makeup doesn’t allow for such a response, despite his befuddlingly low internet recruit ranking and lack of scholarship offers.

“I don’t let stuff like that get in my head — I really don’t,” Fortune said on the eve of high school football’s opening weekend. “All I care about is winning. I need to keep doing what I’ve been doing and hopefully I’ll get offered.”

But if such a basic human response did bubble into the Millbrook High quarterback’s psyche, it’s understandable.

After all, the third-year starter enters his senior year building upon an impressive resume. The Wildcats, an NCHSAA Regional finalist last year, open 2023 in the U.S. Army-sponsored doubleheader Saturday at WakeMed Soccer Park. Millbrook meets Apex Friendship at 4 p.m., and Fuquay-Varina and Middle Creek follow at 7:30 p.m.

One reason for Fortune’s recruiting quandary is his height — he’s 6 feet, 1½ inches tall and weighs 195 pounds. College coaches prefer 6-3 or taller, but Fortune’s career otherwise checks the right boxes:

▪ Highly honored as one of three finalists for North Carolina’s 2022 Mr. Football.

▪ Career record of 24-4 with a deep run in the 2022 NCHSAA playoffs. The Wildcats advanced to the East Region final until a loss to New Bern, the eventual state champion.

▪ Prolific statistics: 4,208 yards with 42 touchdowns as a junior and his two-year totals of 7,308 yards and 82 TDs.

▪ Team captain as a junior on a senior dominated roster.

▪ A 3.375 GPA and a football IQ that has adapted to his fourth head coach’s playbook in three varsity seasons.

▪ Multi-sport athlete as an all-conference pick in baseball.

▪ Pointed praise from Laymarr Marshall, a veteran coach in his first year at Millbrook: “He’s playmaker with a quick release who keeps his accuracy under pressure … and I would add he has the intangibles.”

The internet recruiting service business prides itself on turning over every rock, but the major services don’t rate him at all. Not a 4-star, 3-star or 2-star.

“I’m a no-star,” said Fortune, chuckling without a trace of bitterness in his voice.

The high school sports graveyard is littered with athletes who grew bitter over a lack of attention. The distraction metastasized into poor games or seasons. But Fortune has sidestepped that pitfall, crediting his parents, Chris and Barbara.

“My dad and mom, my whole life, have told me don’t let things get in my head,” Fortune said. “They don’t let me do any trash-talking or whatever. My dad has been my coach since I was 3 or 4 (in baseball). My mom has been a big influence, too. I think she’s been to every game I’ve ever played.”

The words are more than a media savvy kid playing to his audience, said Roseville High pitcher Nate Hollenbeck, a friend dating to Fortune’s youth baseball days.

“I don’t want to say he doesn’t care, but he doesn’t let things like that bother him,” Hollenbeck said. “He’s always been about hard work. He’s always been that way.”

Ironically, Hollenbeck, in a roundabout way, is responsible for Fortune’s low profile. Fortune wasn’t interested in football in their elementary school years while playing for their North Wake Crush youth baseball team, so when the core group moved on to a youth football team, Fortune didn’t join them.

“I kept asking him to come out for the team,” Hollenbeck said. “He had the strongest arm. Finally, I said, ‘Trust me. Come out and see if you like it.’ ”

Fortune relented and was smitten — but not simply because the sport places a premium on arm strength. He was captivated by leadership required of a quarterback directing 10 other moving parts and reading 11 opponents.

That was in sixth grade, with the Wake Forest Titans, and Fortune hasn’t looked back.

As a sophomore in 2021, he emerged as the varsity starter under the Wildcats’ legendary coach, Clarence Inscore. But when Inscore retired, the 2022 season opened with Chris Bunting the head coach. However, Bunting left shortly before the season opener to take a non-football job. Interim coach Jimmy Vereen finished the year.

Marshall, who was named Millbrook’s head coach in February, was successful at Mount Tabor in Winston-Salem, but he wanted a job in the Triangle where his sisters, nieces and nephews live. He met with Fortune the day he was hired and told him he doubles as offensive coordinator with a similar offense, although that meant Hunter Jenks, last year’s OC, switched to defensive coordinator.

Millbrook’s veteran staff includes Marshall among four others with head-coaching experience: Vereen, Jenks, JeVar Bransome and Richard Shuping. A mix of old hands and alums fills out the staff. The staff faces overcoming only four returning starters — Fortune, center Carson Herrera and linebackers Christopher Newcome and Jayden Ferguson.

As for recruiting, Marshall knows it as a former Duke player (1994-98), a longtime high school coach and a parent. His son Noah is a running back at Winston Salem State.

Marshall explained the pandemic altered recruiting when sixth-year eligibility was coupled with the transfer portal. Teams add a veteran transfer rather than a high school recruit. Lower-level colleges add a Division I transfer seeking playing time.

Fortune says college coaches want to see him throw his senior year. So, perhaps he’s questioned for throwing to Power 5 wide receivers — Wesley Grimes in 2021, now at Wake Forest, and Nathan Leacock in 2022, now at Tennessee.

However, that ignores the fact that Fortune finds open guys. Yes, Leacock caught 82 passes for 1,703 yards and 23 touchdowns, but five others totaled double-figures — 45, 37, 24, 19 and 11.

“He’s not worrying about it,” Marshall said. “He wants to enjoy his senior year, and he’s doing everything he is supposed to do in the recruiting process. I think it will work out for him. We can never control scholarship offers, but I think he’s a Division I talent.”

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