Clay, Harper, Lee win POY honors

Jan 24, 2012
by Mike Burke

CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill’s Dylan Clay and Austin Lee, and Mountain Ridge’s Jarrod Harper will be three of the top high school football award recipients for the 2011 season at the 64th Dapper Dan Awards Banquet Sunday at the Ali Ghan Shrine Club.
Clay, who played quarterback, halfback and split end for the 12-1 state semifinalist Sentinels, has been selected as Offensive Player of the Year and will receive the Morton W. Peskin Sr. Memorial Award, while Lee, a Fort Hill linebacker, and Harper, a first-team All-State defensive back at Mountain Ridge, are co-Defensive Players of the Year and will receive the Pepsi-Cola Award.

Fort Hill fullback Garrett Clay is the 2011 Times-News Player of the Year and, along with Harper and Fort Hill placekicker Cullin Brown, will also receive Dapper Dan recognition awards for being named first-team Maryland Small Schools All-State. Fort Hill head coach Todd Appel is the Dapper Dan High School Football Coach of the Year.

Dylan Clay
Fort Hill’s Dylan Clay, 5-11, 180-pound senior, was voted second-team All-State all-purpose back, rushing for 1,055 yards, catching 12 passes for 302 yards, returning kicks for 71 yards and passing for 91 yards to finish with 1,519 all-purpose yards.

“To be fair,” said Appel, “we didn’t give the ball to Dylan as much as we normally would have because we used him in several different positions through the year. Whatever position we put him in, though, he adapted well because he’s such a great athlete. He adapted well physically and mentally.

“He got thrown in at quarterback against Ligonier Valley (in the fifth game of the season) and was faced with so many responsibilities. But he performed so well that you would have thought he had been there all year.”

Clay rushed for 104 yards on five carries in Fort Hill’s 29-0 win that evening, scoring a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns covering 74 yards and 32 yards to ice the Fort Hill victory. He also rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries in the Sentinels’ 50-7 Homecoming win over Allegany — the first a 55-yard run, and the second one a 52-yard pass from Mike Austin.

“Both Dylan and his brother Garrett work extremely hard,” said Appel. “They have put in a lot of work to become what they are. They’ve received a lot of notoriety, maybe because they’re twins, and because they’re fast, obviously. But they don’t get enough credit for the hard workers they are.

“Maybe they don’t pass the eye test, but anything they receive in the future is a tribute to their hard work.”

Austin Lee
Lee, 5-10, 180-pound senior, was named second-team All-State linebacker, having led the Sentinels in tackles with 72 solos, 51 assists and eight special team tackles. He also had four fumble recoveries, a sack, three blocked kicks and three batted balls.

“Austin is an upbeat kid no matter how tough times seem,” said Appel. “He always has a positive attitude on things. He has a great temperament to be successful, because he doesn’t allow anything to get him down.

“He always has a smile on his face, and we’ve all seen him play football when he’s full of energy and always bouncing around. He’s constantly around the ball.”

Lee called the signals for a defense that allowed just 93 points in 13 games this season — 70 of which were scored on the first team.
“He understands the opponents’ offense as well as any member of our coaching staff,” said Appel. “If you see him walking the street you wouldn’t think he’s a football player. At 5-8, 175 pounds he looks like the boy next door.

“He made the most out of his abilities. If others used 100 percent of their ability the way Austin did they’d be NFL players.”

In Fort Hill’s 41-0 win over previously unbeaten Mountain Ridge in the ninth week of the season, Lee blocked two Miners punts, the first leading to his team’s first touchdown, and the second one setting up field position that would lead to a safety.

“I don’t know if the Mountain Ridge game stood out any more than his other games, other than the blocked punts,” said Appel. “He seems to always shine because he’s always giving that 100 percent.”

Jarrod Harper
Mountain Ridge’s Harper, 6-0, 200-pound senior, completed another outstanding season for the Miners after committing to West Virginia University nearly a year ago. He is scheduled to sign his NCAA letter of intent next week on national signing day.

“We’re all very happy for Jarrod,” Mountain Ridge head coach Roy DeVore said of his player’s latest honor. “We feel he is very deserving of it. He was a big part of our defense.

“Of course, we had a pretty successful season, even though we didn’t go as far as we wanted to. But the last two years have been successful seasons and Jarrod has been a big part of that.”

Harper started on the Mountain Ridge varsity for three seasons and helped lead the Miners to the Maryland 1A playoffs his junior and senior seasons. Mountain Ridge was 9-2 his senior season and Harper finished the season with 32 solo tackles, 20 assists, five tackles for loss, three interceptions and three fumble recoveries.

In the Miners’ 26-12 win at Hedgesville the second week of the season, Harper recovered a Hedgesville fumble and outran the field for a 98-yard touchdown, helping the Miners to a 14-12 lead rather than a potential two-touchdown third-quarter deficit.

“That was definitely a big play in our season,” said DeVore. “The biggest thing with him playing centerfield was when teams scouted us they knew they couldn’t throw down the middle with his range, speed and athleticism back there. I think it curbed a lot of their options as far as their offensive game plan knowing he was back there.”

DeVore says it won’t be the same not having Harper around at Mountain Ridge.

“Jarrod is blessed with a lot of athletic ability, and he’s very hard working.” DeVore said. “He has sort of devoted his life to our program for the last four years. He’s done everything he’s been asked to do. It’s been a pleasure to coach him, the last two years especially.

“He did not miss a practice and stayed healthy with no injuries. He was very dependable in complementing our team the way he has the past two years.”

The 64th Dapper Dan dinner will get underway at 4 p.m. with the awards program beginning at 5. For further information, call The Original Sports Shoppe at 301-722-5490.