Omari Cotton, senior at Athens Drive Magnet High School, currently a football player and has been on the varsity team since his sophomore year. As a cornerback on the varsity football team, he has started almost every game in his high school career, only missing games his sophomore season due to injury.
“I want to see him continue to develop as a leader and improve his skills along with his game, he needs to stay consistent so he can get on the radar of some schools and continues to work hard so he can get to where he needs to be so he can be a college football player” said Jeremy Fullbright, head football coach.
Cotton hopes to play for North Carolina State University (NCSU) or East Carolina. University (ECU) as a starter next fall. He attended summer football training at ECU with many other senior teammates.
“ It was an amazing experience getting to play at ECU with Omari. This is my first year on varsity with him and he is a great teammate and is always watching out for us and giving good advice.” said Isaiah Ntumba, junior football player.
Cotton is an inspiration to younger players. They look up to his as a leader to take them through their season. As a defensive player, Cotton has shown strength in many ways. At the third game of the, season he averages three tackles a game, well above the national average of one.
“Omari is a really good player and a lot of the freshman look up to him and want to be as successful as him.” said Mitchell Huggins, sophomore football player.
This season the team aspires to make the playoffs. To do this they need to have at least the same record of 7-3 which took them to playoffs in the 2017 season. In 2016, Fullbright became the new head coach and since then has brought the program far. Until last year Athens Football had not made it to the playoffs since 2007. The team has been working on fundamental training such as tackling, in hope to get them farther this year.
“I want to see the team to continue to come together and show consistency and identify some leadership to help us go through the season stronger and as one and find guys we can really count on and just get better and stronger week in and week out.” said Fullbright.
