Dade County’s Malaki Webb (12) goes up the middle for a Wolverine touchdown. The Dade County Wolverines visited the Gordon Lee Trojans in GHSA football action on August, 18, 2016. Malaki Webb rushed for 135 yards on 11 carries and scored three touchdowns for Dade County in his first football game of 2016.
It was an aberration. Freshmen aren’t supposed to make those kinds of contributions.
Less than a dozen of the more than 60 high school football programs in the Chattanooga area had a freshman starter to begin the 2016 season.
“Usually they’re just not developed – not ready to play mentally or physically,” observed veteran Meigs County coach Jason Fitzgerald, who has coached at the 5A, 4A and now 2A levels.
At Northwest Whitfield, coach Josh Robinson has three teams, and the biggest freshman promotion has been moving three from the ninth-grade team to the junior varsity. In his years at Northwest, only one freshman has started for the varsity, and that was kicker Miguel Villa.