2015 High School Football Tour: Stop #27 – Gordo

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GORDO, Ala. (WCBI Sports) – For 16-straight years this team has advanced to the playoffs in Alabama.

Gordo High School’s success hasn’t slowed down in head coach Ryan Lolley’s tenure. He enters his third year with sky-high hopes.

“The expectations are extremely high,” Lolley said. “But we have to prepare just like we do every year.”

The Green Wave players understand their team’s history.

“Gordo, it’s a big tradition, football is,” senior Ben Davis said. “We definitely have to live up to expectations.”

“We can go more than playoffs,” senior D’Angelo Jones said. “We have a big chance of getting the Blue Map this year.”

Gordo falls short of raising that Blue Map this past season, losing in the state semifinals on a late touchdown after an undefeated regular season.

“It was very painful but at the same time it created a hunger for the bunch that’s back this year,” Lolley said.

The players are wearing shirts with the word “hungry” on them this off-season, with the Gordo logo in place of the “g”. The team says the motto puts a word to its attitude.

“Not to get comfortable, complacent off the success we had last year,” junior quarterback Koy Chapman said. “Anything other than a Blue Map at this school, you didn’t reach you goal.”

“Being hungry is more than making the fourth round and saying ‘you made it there,’” senior Darian Wilson said. To him, it’s about “making it to the state championship and winning it.”

Other aspects of the ‘hunger’ are the pack mentality and playing within the confines of the team.

“Our guys are very close-knit and I think it’s because they spend a tremendous amount of time together,” Lolley said.

“It’s one big brotherhood,” Jones said.

“We talk about it a lot. We don’t want to be a selfish team,” Wilson said. “We try to let all our playmakers get the ball.”

And Gordo certainly has some playmakers. College scouts are enamored with a number of Green Wave guys. 6-4, 230-plus pound tight end and linebacker Ben Davis has a list of offers 30 schools long, including almost every SEC school. He’s comfortable with the recruiting process by now.

“I just make it fun,” Davis said. “It can get stressful if you make it stressful.”

Scouts from Southern Cal and Michigan have come to watch Davis practice. Teammates and coaches rave about how great of a person he is.

“Ben is as fine a young man as you’re going to be around,” Lolley said. “He’s very humble and a good teammate. That’s the special thing about Ben. Another thing is he’s 6-4, 238 pounds, can run and has a very good mind for the game. More than likely this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

But that’s not Gordo’s only weapon.

“Ben’s great and all, but on Friday nights you’re going to get a double team on him,” Chapman said. “That’s just going to open it up for other guys to make plays.”

Chapman is 13-1 as a starter. Add senior lineman D’Angelo Jones, who has a Mississippi State offer, to what is a list of guys getting next-level looks. Gordo has to replace four starters on both sides of the ball, but the Green Wave feels it’s just reloading.

“We feel like we have a great amount of experience,” Lolley said. “We felt like we had a really good spring. It’s carried over into a great summer and we’re looking forward to an excellent fall.”

The Green Wave scrimmage Glencoe High School August 21 in Montgomery to start the season.