When a school is resurrecting a football program that has been dormant since 1951 the first position you want to fill is quarterback. On Wednesday morning at Snavely gymnasium, Unaka senior John “Boy” Ramsey signed to attend school and play quarterback for the Division II Erskine College Flying Fleet in South Carolina.

Ramsey picked this particular day to sign because it would have been his paternal grandfather’s birthday and wanted to honor his memory. The elder Ramsey passed away in September of 2018 and the young Ramsey said of this day, “It’s so emotional for me. I wanted to honor my grandfather on what was his birthday. He was always supportive and whenever I went to his house he always asked how I did and how the team did, and was always supportive.”

He intends to study sports medicine and counts Champion Physical Therapy’s Charles Peters – who serves as Unaka’s sports trainer – as an inspiration to model himself after.

“Charles is always here every Friday and every game and he is a great role model,” Ramsey said. “He’s always helping kids out and it’s something I want to do.”

Unaka head coach O’Brien Bennett – who is losing perhaps his best offensive weapon – said of Ramsey, “Any time you are a quarterback, you are a team leader. And we had the luxury of his understanding of the game and he was a cerebral quarterback who understood what we wanted to do on the football field. He was almost like a coach on the field.”

Ramsey put up some impressive numbers, passing for over 5,000 yards with 57 touchdowns – including 10 rushing scores – and helped to get the Rangers program to respectability after some down years.

John Ramsey senior was not worried about the pressure that being one of the first players of a new program would bring to his son saying, “John Boy has played all over the place and has not shown that any situation is too big for him. That is something I tried to instill in him and I think he has it. He has played travel ball in Cooperstown and Disney World, so it won’t be too big for him. He always had the academic’s down as well. When he would come home, before he went to practice or to work out he did his homework. He never wanted to put that off and that’s how he was able to have a 4.0 average.”

Ramsey’s mother, Christa said, “We are very proud of the young man he has become. He has had a lot of challenges along the way, and I think one of the major challenges was losing his grandfather. I think that was difficult for him and working hard to try and build up the program here at Unaka was a challenge as well. He is further away than I would like, but we always find a way to get to his games.”