Throughout the week, the News Courier will be featuring Limestone County’s top leaders on the gridiron. Players were chosen by their coaches for their leadership both on and off of the field and in the classroom.

First in a series.

Almost all high school football coaches will tell you that a team is only as good as its leaders. And there is no tool anymore valuable on the football field than experience.

Since every football team’s preseason goal is to make it to the playoffs, all of the local coaches will be looking to their seniors to ensure their teams make it over the hump. With such a large number of talented seniors scattered across Limestone County this year, there shouldn’t be any shortage of senior leadership anywhere.

Among those who demonstrate a great deal of leadership both on and off the field is Tanner High School’s Amos Draper. Because of that, Draper has been selected to The News Courier’s list of Limestone’s Leaders.

“Amos has a good attitude,” Tanner Coach Laron White said. “He’s one of those guys that has the respect of the team. Nobody ever gets mad at him. If he was going half speed most of the time then they might not respect him as much, but they know he’s going to go all out and they respect him enough to do the same when he asks for it.”

White added that it’s Draper’s attitude that makes him so easy to coach.

“He’s just a great player,” White said. “He’s very explosive. He goes wide open all the time and does everything you want him to do. I think he helps the other guys, especially the offensive and defensive linemen. They see him working hard and they do the same thing. And that’s very positive.”

Draper has been starting on the Tanner football team since ninth grade and has seen a lot of snaps during his high school playing days, including the Rattlers’ past three playoff appearances. He said in order to make sure his team has another successful season this year, they first need to get everybody healthy.

“We’ve had a few guys out with injuries,” Draper said. “We’ve had to rely on some of the younger guys to step up and I feel like they’ve done that. Most of them have been working hard to show us older guys that they can get the job done. And they’ve done a pretty good job at it.”

With the season fast approaching, Draper said he’s ready to get his senior season underway.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Draper said. “I’m hoping I can go out big.”