Thursday, October 01, 2009
Giles High School's big boys clear the way
The Spartans are rebounding from two early losses and are preparing for Three Rivers District play.
RAY COX The Roanoke Times
Giles High School linemen Justin Farmer (left) and Greg Ray now the fourth and fifth players in program history to join the honorary Thousand Pound Club of those who can match or exceed that weight for a combined total of bench press, squat and power clean.
Ray Cox covers recreational, high school and college sports in the New River Valley. If you have information you’d like featured,
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Ray Cox
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PEARISBURG -- An advertising campaign for a fast food chain was once built around the question "Where's the beef?"
Nobody need ask that question about Giles High School's football team. You don't even need to know much about the sport to find where the big boys are. Proceed to the center position and turn right.
Measuring 12 feet, 7 inches -- laid end to end -- and weighing a combined 588 pounds, seniors Greg Ray and Justin Farmer line up shoulder to massive shoulder on the right side of the Spartans line.
Again, not much advanced football knowledge is required to deduce that the Giles' single-wing offense tends to run right.
"Pretty much, yes," Giles coach Jeff Williams said, "pretty much."
Those two are the human battering rams who open spacious boulevards for the Spartans backs to blow through. Giles has changed very little if at all over the years on offense. Here, offensive line is considered a glamour position.
"We both moved up here with the varsity when we were in 10th grade," said Ray, 6-foot-4, 290 pounds. "It was a huge shock for me. They pushed us so much harder.
"They'd always preach to us about the tradition and how we hit the sled every Monday and Wednesday in practice. They preached block, block, block."
The results over the years speak for themselves.
As for this year, it started off under less than favorable circumstances with defeats to Group AA teams Blacksburg and Christiansburg. The loss to the undefeated Blue Demons was a blowout -- Williams says it's the best Christiansburg team they've ever played.
Since then, the Spartans have turned things around, winning three straight. The latest triumph in the string was a 28-20 comeback victory over George Wythe in which the Spartans scored the last 21 points of the game.
Naturally, the play up front had a lot to do with it. The Maroons are strong along the line of scrimmage, too. The marquee lineman for that team is 6-foot-2, 272-pound Drew Lester. Farmer had most of the blocking assignment on him.
"It was a challenge," Farmer said. "I knew it would be. He's very strong. I think I did a pretty good job. He didn't make many tackles."
Occasionally, Farmer and Ray teamed up on Lester.
"I know we doubled him a couple of times and drove him 10, 15 yards and put him on his back," Farmer said. "That was pretty fun."
Not as much fun over the years have been some of the Farmer-Ray bouts in practice.
Those go back to the days when Ray's family moved to the area from northern West Virginia. When he showed up for his first try at sandlot football, Farmer was on another team. As you might expect, the two usually matched up in games.
"He wasn't easy to block," Ray said. "He still isn't when I have to block him in practice."
The respect developed both ways as they became friends and workout partners in later years.
"Greg's a hard worker," Farmer said. "We work each other hard and make each other better. He's hard to handle sometimes."
It's one thing to be big like those two are. They're strong, too, though. They're now the fourth and fifth players in program history to join the honorary Thousand Pound Club of those who can match or exceed that weight for a combined total of bench press, squat and power clean.
It's not just muscle power and size that sets these two apart.
They're both smart in academics and in football scholarship. Farmer is in his second year of going to Southwest Virginia Governor's School for gifted students. The bus leaves Giles at 7 a.m. for the morning session at the Governor's School, which is in Pulaski County. Farmer returns to Giles for the afternoon.
"I use my time as wisely as I can," he said. "I have an hour and a half on the bus to get stuff done. I have a work hour, too."
The notoriously long Spartans practices occasionally make for a long night hitting the books.
"It's not too bad," Farmer said stoically.
Ray was recruited by and has plans to play at Liberty University. He loved the school and says the Lynchburg area reminded him of home. He thinks he'll major in one of the sciences when he gets there.
Farmer accepted an invitation to go to a game at Louisville and has also visited William and Mary. Obviously, NCAA academic standards for freshman eligibility won't be a problem.
Meanwhile, after being off this week, Giles begins its Three Rivers District schedule with a game against visiting Glenvar on Oct. 9.
The big boys will play an important role on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Williams had said he hoped to be able to give them some more rest on defense this season, but so far, that hasn't worked exactly as planned. Having just 26 pure varsity players (eight or nine junior varsity players suit up for varsity games) has a lot to do with it.
"We get some guys in there to spell them a little bit on defense, but they still play a lot of defense, more than I hoped they'd have to play," Williams said.
Things are looking up in other ways.
Optimism is again running high, the two disappointments to start the season receding further into memory. Ray gave his coaches credit for successfully dealing with the players' confidence issues before they got out of hand.
"Our coaches never put us down," he said. "They always built us up and told us that we could be good if we just tried harder. So that's what we did."
