Hooten anchors Calvary o-line

Calvary Christian head coach Chris Rivera stated at practice Tuesday that one of the team's biggest strengths will be its offensive line. Leading the way for that unit is 6-foot-4, 300 pound senior Thomas Hooten, a hard-nosed, physically-gifted center with a penchant for pancaking the opposition.

"If a little guy's blocking him, they're in a world of hurt," Rivera said. "There's just no way. He's going to collapse them."

Hoping to raise his profile among college recruiters this summer, Hooten attended the Down and Dirty Linemen Camp at Stetson University in addition to camping at Boston College and performed well at both according to Rivera. Hooten has offers from some Division-III schools, but would like to play at a higher level.

"I want to go D-I," said Hooten, who also sees time on the defensive line. "That's why I've been working all summer, working on my speed and everything...I dropped my weight a lot and built up a lot of muscle. I used to have a big gut."

Hooten sports a 3.2 GPA and hopes to score around 1,200 on the SAT. He's had interest from a number of Ivy League schools as well as Duke, Boston College, Western Kentucky and Florida State.

BRYAN BURNS, Times Staff Writer

Comments

Burns, you got 2 blogs already in here about Calvary. Does anyone else in the county play football?

[KCSdad]

I first met Thomas when he was playing 8th grade basketball at Skycrest Christian. We had some good games against Skycrest and Thomas always had a great attitude before, during and after the games. He would always talk with my players after the games and even now, 4 years later, I have seen them together talking after games. Although they compete against each other on the courts and fields, they all realize its just a game. I hope he gets the opportunity to play D1 football. He will be a great addition to any football program just because of his character alone.