Knowing that his senior year of football will be the last year of Durant Tiger football due to the consolidation with Holmes County High School carries quite a weight for rising junior and all-purpose athlete Quamon Newsom.
He understands what it means to be a Tiger and he understands the history of the program that is steeped in tradition, long before he was born.
“Knowing that I’ll get to play my junior and senior year at Durant during the last two years of the program is special to me,” said Newsom. “I feel like we as a team are going to be a part of the history of the football team and I hope we can go out with a championship. It feels really good being selected to the Super 7 and I hope that the plays that I will be able to make will reflect the hard work and dedication I have put in.”
The Super 7 selection, who is 5-11, 165, is key to this aforementioned success and will play a huge role in the success of the Tigers going forward.
“He’s just such a great leader both on and off the field,” said head coach Ras Bayles. “With his leadership and athletic abilities, he can just take over a game in any situation. He is our best receiver, but he will play defensive back, running back and a little quarterback as well.”
Being a leader is something that just comes natural for Newsom, according to Bayles.
“He goes really hard in practice and challenges the other kids to friendly competitions and is such a good team player,” he said. “He’s always trying to find the positive out of certain situations and he’s such an easy guy to get behind. I am looking for big things out of him (Newsom).”
Bayles stated that the team just looks up to him and they expect him to make plays. “When he’s in the huddle, everything is at peace,” added Bayles.
Newsom is like another coach on the field for the Tigers due to his obvious abilities and his maturity. He knows where most players need to be in certain situations and has a knack for lifting their spirits when a play does not go their way.
“He will be a big time role player for us this year and we will put him in bunch of different positions,” added Bayles. “We will try to get the ball to him in space because that is where he does well. His No. 1 position is as a receiver, but we will use him wherever he can help us on any particular play.”
Bayles, who became head coach for the Tigers last summer, feels that having a full off-season to work with his team will be a plus for Newsom in the fact that he has a better understanding of the offense and defense and will play with much more confidence.
Newsom makes it clear that he constantly wants to get better so that his team can get better. He is not satisfied with the work that he has put in to this point of the process and feels that as he gets better he can help his team get better, and the combination of the two can only lead to good things for Durant football.
“I hope to lead the State of Mississippi in all-purpose yards and I hope to be one of the top players in 1A football,” said Newsom. “I’ve been to several 7-on-7 camps, the Big Dawg Camp at Mississippi State and I work out at the D-1 Training Center in Gluckstadt as well to try to be the best that I can be.”
Newsom gathers his motivation from just wanting to be the best that he can be as well as his last two years being the last two years of the Durant football program.
A tradition-rich program in the twilight of its existence is probably enough motivation for any athlete, and Newsom takes it to heart and has sights set on championships.
“I just want us to go out with a bang,” added Newsom. “I can remember looking up to the older Tigers when they made it to state and do all those things that they did and I always wanted to be one (a Tiger). Like I said, I just want us to go out with a bang and make the last two seasons the best that Durant has ever had.”
Newsom, who spends his spare time working cattle on the farm, wants to be a construction engineer after earning his degree from Mississippi State.
Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a 7-part series highlighting the top football players in the area who encompass leadership, athleticism and game-changing abilities for their teams in 2016. The players are taken from rosters of high school teams in The Star-Herald coverage area and are nominated by their coaches. Sports editor Stan Beall makes the selections. The players will be revealed one at a time over a 7-week period and are in no particular order. Previously selected were McAdams’ Mark Stewart, Kosciusko’s B.J. Johnson, Ethel’s Hayes Wood and Kosciusko’s Kevin Moore.
