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SD FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Q'Nairies Anderson
CHARLESTON, Mo. — 7,892 is the number that Charleston’s Q’Nairies Anderson finished with after the conclusion of his senior season; becoming the school's all-time rushing leader and winning his second-consecutive Standard Democrat Football Player of the Year as well.
Anderson eclipsed the mark in Week 8, against rival East Prairie. A game where he not only ran for 244 yards and five touchdowns, but one where the Bluejays locked up the SEMO East championship as well.
For Anderson, passing that mark was the most significant moment of his career.
“The moment I passed the career rushing leader because honestly, I was shocked,” Anderson said. “It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.”
In 2018, the Bluejays star rushed for 2,944 yards on 271 carries, good for nearly 11 yards per attempt; earning him a myriad of awards in the process.
There is no question that Anderson’s resume is stacked.
Being named to the SEMO All-Conference First Team, Southeast Missouri Area Football Coaches Association First Team, Missouri Football Coaches Association First Team All-Region and All-State, along with becoming the SEMO East scoring champion and a Carr Trophy Award nominee were the accolades that Anderson garnered just this past season.
The road to all the recognition was not easy, though, as Charleston head coach Brett Blackman pointed out.
“I think when you look back, and the story of him is that we worked really closely with little league football, and they told me this was a kid that we need to keep our eye on very early on,” Blackman said. “Then, we started developing that relationship with him when he was in our middle school program. The funny story is he got a little bit big for his britches toward the end of his eighth-grade year, and they called me over to talk to him.
“He’s a kid that’s not perfect, but if you need to make a correction or something like that, you just tell him once. He works hard in the weight room, does everything we ask him to. You don’t have to worry about him not working in class. He’s just grown so much not only as an athlete but as a person as well.”
Anderson’s impact also goes far beyond the football field.
To him, character means everything, and Anderson has a lot of it.
“Character-wise, I don’t brag about anything,” Anderson said. “I’m more about the business side, taking care of business first and then doing what I can do on the field later.”
Going into his freshman year at Charleston, the expectations for Anderson were high.
It wasn’t during football season when Blackman saw a change in Anderson. Instead, it was when he competed in the track and field state championships after his sophomore season.
“We kind of knew when he kicked it into gear up in the state track championships at the end of his sophomore season,” Blackman said. “We saw some things that we noticed was next level stuff. Originally, he performed well at camps and everything like that and during the summer and did some training with some people in St. Louis. We actually were talking about limiting his carries because we were trying to develop our passing game. One thing led to another, though, and we had to do some revision stuff on what we were going to do offensively. So, we gave the ball to him 271 times, and that’s a lot — we gave the ball to him 236 times one year before. He does great things when he touches the football. He makes good coaches look like good coaches, so we’re just there to support him.”
The next step for Anderson is helping the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks continue its winning ways.
Last Wednesday, Anderson signed his National Letter of Intent to the Redhawks football team, a decision that he made in June and one that goes far beyond football for the talented running back.
“Being able to be close to home, and my Mom being able to come up and see me,” said Anderson on what drew him the most to SEMO. “All the coaches treat me like family too, so why would you want to go somewhere else when you already got the connection to the coaches, you already feel like family to them.
“I don’t think I’m going to start right off the bat. I got to work to get to that point. So, right now, the way that I can help them is being in the weight room, being in class on-time — just getting bigger and stronger.”
SEMO is coming off of its best season since 2010. The Redhawks finished with a winning record — 9-4 — and a postseason appearance for the first time since that season.
Last season, SEMO also finished fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference in rushing offense.
Senior Marquis Terry led the conference in rushing, securing over 1,200 yards for the season, but with his graduation looming, opens up an opportunity for Anderson to make a name for himself in an offense that allows it.
“I think that what they are doing a very good job of right now with their offensive players, is that they’re utilizing their offensive players on what they do well,” Blackman said. “They’re not trying to make them do something that they’re not very good at, and I think that’s part of the success they had this year. They’ve talked to Q and worked with him on some video stuff on his visits already. I said ‘we’re going to utilize you doing this.’ Q knows that this is a process and that it's a process-driven program. He’s got to put in the work and he if he just keeps on continuing to push himself and doing the things that he needs to do and doesn’t change, we’re going to see big things out of him.”
Building relationships are what Blackman said SEMO head coach Tom Matukewicz does very well.
He added that he wants to recruit Southeast Missouri to the best of his ability, and said that Anderson’s transition from high school to college would be seamless.
“One thing that coach ‘Tuk’ does is that he wants to recruit local,” Blackman said. “SEMO’s a regional university, and he has kids from Kennett there and all across Southeast Missouri that get very involved with our coaches association. He makes it personal with them and makes a point to giving these kids a life. As somebody that cares about our kids, you know that they’re going there — we got them this far — and they’re going to complete the job of developing them into young men, and that’s very important.
I was on a lot of his visits with him and what they have up there is special. When Q committed in June, he could have waited and maybe had some bigger offers, but he kept on comparing everything to SEMO, and he came up to me in June and said, ‘I’m ready,’ and so we went on a visit with his Mom and worked out some details. He just feels like he’s part of the team already up there and that will help him with the transition of going from high school to college.”
Despite all of the awards earned on the field, one that stood out to Blackman the most was Anderson receiving the Burlsworth Character and Sportsmanship Award — an honor that went from being an Arkansas high school award to now a national one.
Honoring the “ideals and value that Brandon Burlsworth had,” is what the award exemplifies. Burlsworth — a former Arkansas football player who turned himself from a walk-on to an NFL player — was killed in an automobile accident.
Given to an athlete that may not be the greatest on the field, but one that exemplifies everything that Burlsworth stood for off of it is the central theme of earning the honor.
“Well, it’s nice to have your kids recognized on the national level,” Blackman said. “I mean, when you have a kid that’s been recognized on the state and national level, it’s just great for the community. A lot of times, we’re not highlighted for our success on those things, but we do have a lot of good kids here, and we’re trying to push that in the right direction. We’re just excited and happy that we had a kid that was recognized.”