Football Recruiting
Report
Thursday, May 29, 2014
By Sammy Batten |
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Future Pirate living up to family name
Offense, defense both an option for
Grand Strand standout Colby Gore
Recruiting Class of 2015 Thumbnail Sketches...
By
Sammy Batten
©2014 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The last name Gore has been a common
one for years in the North Myrtle Beach (SC) High School football
program, but one particular clan by that title has distinguished itself
longer than most others with the Chiefs.
North Myrtle Beach defensive back-wide
receiver Colby Gore became the latest in a line of family members to earn a
chance to play college football on May 16 when he accepted a scholarship
offer from East Carolina. Gore made the decision over Charlotte, Coastal
Carolina, Limestone, Marshall and Old Dominion just less than three months
after the Pirates became the second school to offer (Charlotte jumped in on
national signing day, Feb. 5).
"He received several other offers, but he
seemed to be excited to go to Greenville and play football,'' said former
North Myrtle Beach head coach and current secondary coach, Denver Cromer.
"East Carolina has always done a really good job recruiting the Grand Strand
region because it is relatively close to Greenville. It's just as close as
going to any other North Carolina school, and not much further than going to
the University of South Carolina. It's (ECU) almost a local school, and
they've done a good job getting kids out of this area.''
The Pirates have indeed recruited the
Grand Strand area with intensity during Ruffin McNeill's tenure as head
coach, but they've had far more success in the areas from Columbia to the
West. Their most recent Grand Strand signee was Myrtle Beach wide receiver
Donte Sumpter, who came in the recruiting Class of 2011. Sumpter left the
program in 2012 after his redshirt freshman season.
Hopefully, Gore will stay around
Greenville a bit longer because he's a versatile athlete who could develop
into a big-time college player on either side of the football.
The 6-foot, 180-pounder isn't the first
in the Gore family to display that kind of potential. Two older brothers
played college football and his uncle, Milton Gore, played for two NCAA
Division I-AA championship teams at Georgia Southern. Milton Gore is now an
assistant principal and sometime football coach for the Chiefs, according to
Cromer.
"Here at North Myrtle Beach we've had a
lot of players with the last name Gore,'' Cromer said. "They have a long
history of football excellence in his family. He (Colby Gore) joined our
program in the ninth grade, but he's basically been around it all his life.
"So it was no surprise when he came to us
in the ninth grade that he'd be a good player for us.''
The only issue was Gore's stature. When
he arrived at North Myrtle as a ninth grader, "he was a rather small kid,''
Cromer said. "He kind of moved like a great athlete, but we wondered how big
he was going to get.''
While awaiting a growth spurt, Gore spent
his freshman season playing for the North Myrtle junior varsity. But by his
sophomore season, Gore moved to the varsity secondary in 2012, where he
quickly became know as a ball hawk. He intercepted six passes in 2012 to
rank among the best in the region as the Chiefs finished 4-5.
Gore and North Myrtle Beach made distinct
improvement in their performances last season. Playing both wide receiver
and safety, Gore caught 25 passes for 350 yards and two touchdowns while
making 48 tackles and eight interceptions. Three of those interceptions he
returned for touchdowns as North Myrtle Beach went 9-3 and advanced to the
second round of the state playoffs. The effort earned Gore a spot on the
Myrtle Beach Sun News Toast of the Coast defensive team.
Big plays were Gore's specialty. During a
48-20 win against Wilson in October, he started the game by returning the
opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. Then, as the first half drew to a
close, Gore picked off a pass and raced 79 yards for another score.
But it was in a 52-35 first-round state
playoff victory against Orangeburg-Wilkinson that Gore made the play Cromer
called the key to a major upset in the South Carolina playoff ranks.
"We were a fourth seed against a one
seed,'' Cromer said. "We were supposed to be a big underdog. But on an early
possession in the first quarter, Colby picks off a pass and takes it right
down the sideline about 70 yards for a touchdown. That was the spark that
kind of ignited us and gave us the belief that we could win that game. We
pulled a sizable upset because of that play.''
North Myrtle Beach's success proved a
negative in one way as it led head coach Perry Woolbright to depart his post
in May for the same job at Batesburg-Leesville, which won the state Class AA
Division II title last year. That left the Chiefs without a head coach
during spring practices, although Cromer is one of three former head coaches
remaining on the staff.
Whoever is hired for the 2014 season will
inherit a solid squad, led by Gore.
"We have a good core of players
returning,'' Cromer said. "Right now we do have some depth issues because we
lost a really good senior class. We finished the spring with a lot of young
guys coming up to fill some roles.
"Colby will be a focal point on both
sides of the ball as a senior. He's been a great player on offense for us,
but we've always had a significant number of skill players. So this year his
numbers on offense should be much higher.''
Gore could wind up playing offense or
defense for ECU.
"My impression is they have been looking
at him as a receiver,'' Cromer said. "But he also has the ability to play
defensive back. Like any other Division I program, when you get an athlete
who is a good all-around athlete like Colby, you may find he fits your needs
better on the defensive side of the football.''
Gore is the fourth rising high school
senior to make a pledge to
ECU's Class of 2015. A fifth player
committed a week after Gore in linebacker Danny Thomas from Godby High
School in Tallahassee, FL. A report is forthcoming on Thomas, a 6-2,
220-pounder who put up some incredible statistics as a junior for Godby.
E-mail Sammy Batten
PAGE UPDATED
05/30/14 03:16 AM.
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