Boyd-Buchanan’s Austin Bailey (55) latches onto Copper Basin’s Dylan Boggs (15).When he begins reviewing components for a football team, Grant Reynolds looks for the hard-chargers and difference-makers.
The Boyd-Buchanan coach knows that players such as Malik Brewer, the Buccaneers’ bulky two-way lineman, an elusive quarterback like Jim Cardwell and a hard-nosed runner along the lines of Rance Harden aren’t going to come along every year.
He is therefore seeking the guys who work to make a difference on every play — the savage, ravaging defenders who’ll sprint from sideline to sideline with hopes of getting a piece of a ball carrier and the intelligent types who call blocking schemes and know before they open where the holes are likely to be.
And if Reynolds can get two for one as he did with center and defensive end Austin Bailey, it’s all the better.
“He plays hard,” Reynolds said of Bailey. “He doesn’t mind sticking his nose in there on blocks, and he makes all of our offensive-line calls. He’s intelligent — good football smarts.”