DALTON, Ga. — If Coty Burch continues at his current pace, the Southeast Whitfield senior running back will end his high school football career with over 4,000 rushing yards.
The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder already is the Raiders’ all-time leading rusher, setting the mark in last week’s historic 70-0 win over Murray County, but there was a time three years ago that all this success would have been pure fantasy.
Burch was ready to hang up his spikes before he had taken his first handoff. The razor-thin Raiders and then first-year coach David Crane kept Burch on varsity, but due to a lack of depth they didn’t let him play junior varsity even though he wasn’t playing. Crane remembers meeting with the young player and his mother.
“About five weeks in, he’s hit the ninth-grade wall and doesn’t want to practice anymore,” Crane said. “It was very emotional, but we talked him into staying. A few weeks later he saw some action on varsity and even started the final game. Since then you couldn’t run him off, and it’s rewarding for me to know that he went from sitting in this office wanting to quit as a freshman to becoming the school’s all-time leading rusher. It’s pretty cool.”
That perseverance led to a 1,000-yard sophomore season and 1,400 yards and a berth on the Best of Preps All-North Georgia first team. And he did that in a spread, pass-first offense that running backs often get lost in, especially at his size.