Two high school football players on the same team in Tennessee allegedly received text messages with disparaging insults from anonymous phone numbers. If true, it presents a concerning reality.
However, I would be lying if I said I don’t have my questions.
There is no room for hate in high school football. Parents also should not manufacture controversy to get their sons attention, which may or may not be what happened here.
West Creek is not very good.
West Creek High School is located in Clarksville, Tennessee, about an hour outside of Nashville. It enrolls approximately 1,700 students in Grades 9-12.
The Coyotes have not won more than four high school football games in a single year since 2017. They finished the 2025 regular season at 1-9 by a combined score of 300-82. Yikes.
Stephen Kpelafiya and Chris Hercules play for West Creek. They are both hoping to receive an opportunity to play college football.
Kpelafiya is a senior who plays defensive end and offensive guard and was named to the 7-6A All-Region team.
Hercules is a wide receiver, running back, outside linebacker and strong safety.
As far as I can tell, neither athlete has been offered a scholarship from a college program.
High school football players should not be subject to anonymous hate.
Chris Hercules and Stephen Kpelafiya are both on X. Their accounts are focused their respective recruitments, which gives me pause. These kinds of profiles are often run by overbearing parents.
I cannot say for certain whether Hercules or Kpelafiya run their own accounts but I have my doubts based on some of the posts. For example:
What high school student posts like that? None that I know. It seems very calculated.
Here is where things get messy…
Chris Hercules posted a screenshot of a string of text messages he received from an anonymous phone number on Thursday morning. They are rooted in hate.
Stephen Kpelafiya later shared a similar string of text messages from a separate unknown number. One of the messages encouraged him to take his own life.
The 304 area code covers the entire state of West Virginia. The 270 area code covers western and south-central Kentucky. I don’t really know why two separate phone numbers would text two separate high school football players on the same bad team in middle Tennessee on the same day after their season already ended. It seems suspicious.
If the messages are real, it is horrible. High school athletes should not be subject to this kind of hate.