TRENTON, Ga. – Dylan McNeese knows the drill, even after only two weeks of being a starter on the Dade County High School football team.
Soon after the Wolverines take the field, the opposition will start sizing him up. It’s the same with every prep team in every game; the staredown before the first whistle is just part of the competition.
For McNeese, though, the pregame ritual is motivating. A 5-foot-10, 175-pound defensive end, the senior first-year starter knows whoever is going to be blocking him that night already is smiling. What tackle in his right mind wouldn’t want to block a kid he outweighs by 100 pounds?
“I hate to be called small,” McNeese said. “Every game their guys say they’re going to run me all over the field.”
It hasn’t happened yet.