By Marty Kirkland
In his first year at Northwestern University, former Dalton High quarterback Harrison Scott has been impressed by the academic environment as much as the football program.
“Everybody’s smart here,” said Scott, who racked up his own academic and athletic honors as a Dalton scholar-athlete, a two-time member of The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Football Team and last season’s Player of the Year.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows even a little about the Chicago-area school, where the classrooms are stocked with bright young minds, but what has been a bit of a shocker is that the Wildcats are grading well on the football field this year, too. They’re 6-1 for the first time since 1996, which was also the last time they went to a bowl game.
Although Scott, a preferred walk-on, doesn’t expect to play this season, he’s got one of the best seats in the house at kickoff, dressing out for home games for the Big Ten school.
I talked to Scott last week while working on an upcoming story for dalton magazine on Dalton High’s 49th straight winning season, then ran into his father, Jerry, at a Catamounts football practice earlier this week. Even with Harrison away at college, the Scotts are keeping up their support, going to see Dalton on Friday, then making an all-night drive to Illinois to see the other ‘Cats.
And I’m sure they’re not the only area football fans who pull double duty of that sort, though the Scotts probably rank first in the mileage standings, because quite a few former local prep standouts have taken their careers on to the next level.
Here’s what’s happening with some of them:
• Another quarterback, Northwest Whitfield alum Drew Carter, is helping the LaGrange College football program grow up quickly. In addition to leading the Panthers to a dramatic first-ever victory in the season opener, the sophomore has guided them to a 6-1 record this season — the school’s third on the football field — including a 4-0 mark in the NCAA Division III’s St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. According to the SLIAC’s Web site, Carter has completed 115 of 234 attempts for 1,570 yards, 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His passing yardage average per game ranks second in the conference.
• Dalton has quite a few players who have earned either part- or full-time starting positions. Kicker Adrian Mora (Georgia Southern) is 17-for-17 on extra points and 6-for-7 on field goals with a long of 41 as a redshirt freshman. Linebackers Preston Keck (a redshirt freshman at Austin Peay) and Jake McIntosh (in his first year at Tennessee Tech) have found their way to the field quickly, too — Keck’s played in all seven games for the Governors and has nine total tackles, while McIntosh has 28 tackles, including two for loss, in five games for the Golden Eagles.
Incidentally, Austin Peay, which is still searching for its first win after seven games, hosts the 3-5 Golden Eagles on Saturday. Another Cat in college is freshman offensive lineman D.J. Lashus, whose Jacksonville State squad will face both the Governors and Golden Eagles in back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference matchups next month.
• Murray County’s Andrew Gould is legging out his final season at Sewanee, where he leads the Tigers in scoring with 40 points through seven games. He’s gone 10-for-12 on field goals and 10-for-13 on extra points and ranks seventh among all Division III kickers with 1.43 field goals per game.
• After bouncing around at other positions, including quarterback and receiver, Southeast’s Marcus Jones has settled in at linebacker for Duke, which is 3-3 under first-year coach David Cutcliffe. Jones is tied for third on the team with 28 total tackles, including one for a loss, and half a sack.
• Another former Raider, Ivan Ruedas, has seen action as a sophomore on the offensive line for The Apprentice School in Newport News, Va. The Builders compete in Division III’s Atlantic Central Football Conference.
• Northwest’s Dakota Beavers is a freshman defensive lineman at University of the Cumberlands, where he’s played in six of seven games this season for the Patriots, who compete in the NAIA’s Mid-South Conference. He’s recorded 13 total tackles, including two for loss, and a sack and a half as Cumberlands has stacked up a 6-1, 3-0 record. One of his teammates is Caleb Pratt, a former Southeast Raider.
• Caleb Bagley, a former Murray County Indian, is a senior offensive lineman at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala. The Eagles, who are in their second season, also play in the Mid-South Conference. Coincidentally, Bagley’s not the only local link at Faulkner — the Eagles are coached by Jim Nichols, a former Murray County assistant who served under Bill Napier.
• One of Napier’s sons, Kurt, has four catches this season for the Tusculum Pioneers. Included in that is his first touchdown catch since switching from quarterback to receiver in 2007. One of Napier’s teammates is a former Northwest Bruin, Steven Leonard, who’s a redshirt freshman offensive lineman.
• Northwest has linemen scattered all over the Southern Conference. Heath Cockburn is a junior and starting right guard at Furman, while Adam Miller and Dustin Tate are freshmen at Chattanooga and Nathan Postelle and Trey Selby are at Western Carolina.
n Dalton’s Brett Thomason (Tennessee), Ben Harbin (Georgia) and Andrew Parmer (Auburn) join Scott as walk-ons living the D-I dream. Parmer has already earned scout team player of the week honors with the Tigers a “couple times,” according to Dalton coach Adam Winegarden, including in the first week of the season.
• If you know of big things happening for a local player we might have missed or don’t know about, you’re welcome to send news and notes my way to help let everyone see what’s going on at the next level.
