CALEDONIA — It’s one thing for a coach to welcome a freshman or a sophomore who has been away from football back into their program.
When a coach has a chance to add a senior he didn’t expect to have to his roster, it can only make him smile.
The decision Jeffrey Gore made to come out for the 2013 Caledonia High School football team has been a welcome addition for first-year head coach Andy Crotwell.
Not only is Gore, who is a member of the school’s boys basketball team, an athletic player, but he also has the size — 6-foot-2, 250 pounds — that makes a coach break out in a grin.
“He had a very good spring,” Crotwell said. “He made all of the summer workouts and works hard every day in practice. He has absorbed the position pretty quickly. He is not young, but he is young on the field, so there are still a lot of things he needs to learn and get better at, but he plays with good effort. That is the No. 1 thing to look for, good effort and coachability.”
Gore has been even more of a delight, Crotwell said, because he listens. He said Gore’s work ethic has helped him jump right in and work through his inexperience in terms of concepts and terminology. He said Gore’s size helped them find a spot for him on the defensive line. He credits assistant coaches Jason Forrester and Brian White for teaching Gore the fundamentals.
“Given his personality and the fact he was a blank slate coming in — he didn’t have any bad habits or he hadn’t worked in any other systems, what we tell him to do at defensive end is the gospel and he does it,” Crotwell said. “In this unique situation, his personality matched with his lack of experience. In a way, it turned out to be a benefit for him. He picked it up pretty quickly.”
Gore said senior Ben Marchbanks encouraged him to play on the football team this season. He said Marchbanks, his teammate on the basketball team, didn’t have to twist his arm to make him come out. Gore said his decision was based on his belief he can help the team.
“I am going to give it my all,” said Gore, who admits he regrets he didn’t play football before this season.
Gore last played football in eighth grade. Even then, he was a member of the offensive and defensive lines, but he said he wanted to concentrate on basketball and didn’t want to play football. He said it hasn’t been difficult re-adjusting to the sport.
“I remember everything,” Gore said. “I should have played my freshman year.”
Gore said he had made up his mind after the 2012 season that he wanted to play football as a senior. He wasn’t scared away by the fact Crotwell was taking over as head coach for Ricky Kendrick, or that the Confederates lost their final seven games of the season after winning their first four.
“It has been good,” Gore said. “I have learned a lot of things. I have gotten stronger (in the weight room). I feel I can help the team win and go to the playoffs.”
Crotwell hopes Gore can set an example for the younger players simply by showing them how quickly he grasped what he has been taught and putting it to use.
“There was an instance in the spring when we were watching practice film with the team and Jeffrey squeezes on a down block like he is supposed to and uses his hands to blow up a fullback and makes the play, coach White makes the comment that, ‘This is a guy who has been doing this for a week and a half and he understands the concept of it. We all need to get that way,’ ” Crotwell said. “I think for some that was a realization for some of the guys it is really that simple. You react to one or two keys and you play football. He is an intelligent athlete. The ones who get really good at a position, or have the potential to get really good at a position, are just that. They don’t let everything buzzing around their head at a million miles per hour affect them. They have tunnel vision to get that initial key and they go play football.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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