CALHOUN, Ga. – For a key to Dre Prather’s success, call it the ability to do more with less.
“Less” doesn’t relate to the Gordon Central High School senior quarterback’s talent. The 5-foot-11, 205-pounder can easily flick his wrist and throw a football over 60 yards on the run, and his 4.6-second speed in the 40-yard dash allows him to escape the pass rush and gain yards as a primary ball carrier.
The “less” in this case is more about personal expectations.
“Dre has settled down, let the game come to him,” Gordon Central coach Chad Fisher said. “The first two years he believed he had to win the game himself. Now he understands he has some talent around him and he’s learned how to better use it and trust it.”
As a result, the 2010 Warriors are 4-2 and averaging nearly 40 points a game. Prather has completed 64 percent of his passes for 1,123 yards and 11 touchdowns and has run for 442 yards and seven touchdowns.
“When I started, there were no seniors here to look up to,” said Prather, who led the Warriors to a 5-5 record in 2008 after the team went 0-10 the year before. “I’ve learned how to trust people. As a sophomore I was scared and a lot of things would go through my mind. I guess I didn’t want to fail, so I tried to do it all.”
The trust started to develop this offseason with 5:30 a.m. workouts, when the seniors bonded and promised each other an all-out effort to make the playoffs. The trust also spread to the coaching staff, and Fisher decided this year to let his quarterback become a dual threat.
“The last two years we didn’t run the ball with him very much because we didn’t want to get him hurt,” said Fisher, noting that Prather, who can squat 560 pounds, is the strongest player on the team. “He was such a big part of our offense that we couldn’t risk it. Now he gives us a third runner and it makes defenses more honest.”
Prather totaled five scores in a 51-43, three-overtime, week-five loss to Dade County, which had not allowed a touchdown against its varsity defense to that point.
To keep their playoff hopes alive, though, the Warriors must win two of their next three games. It’s a difficult challenge, considering two of them are against crosstown rival Calhoun tonight and a hot Chattooga team next week. Prather believes he and his teammates are ready for the challenge.
“It will be tough, but we’re playing real well,” said Prather, who despite his size has high hopes of playing college football. “We can play with anybody, but we know we have to prove it.”