2021 912 Sports Football Awards Show

By Kevin Price

Photography by Michael Brinson

The Cat Named Felix

Camden County senior running back Jamie Felix entered this season knowing he needed to prove himself all over again to the college recruiters. A four-star prospect who had scholarship offers galore going into his junior season in Kingsland, Felix realized some schools weren’t as high on him

as they once were after his 2020 season was

derailed by serious hamstring injuries that

sidelined him until late in the campaign.

“I had to prove to the college coaches that I was healthy, Felix says. “All the coaches were on edge due to the fact I was injured last year. And, I’m doing that.”

Also a big-time baseball player with major-college potential who also possibly could be drafted by a major-league outfit out of high school, Felix pulled the hamstring in his right leg during the spring of his sophomore year playing baseball. He would

also tear the hamstring in his left leg during the summer which took several weeks to heal, forcing him to the sidelines for football practices and games.

Felix, who is 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds, played in six games last fall, but only had seven carries in the Wildcats’ first two games combined. He would miss the middle of the season but returned for Camden’s three region games and its state playoff game. Admittedly nowhere near full-

speed, Felix wasn’t very effective in the team’s first two region games, carrying a combined 31 times for 72 yards.

He was much better in the final two games,

however. In the regular-season finale at Lowndes, Felix ran for 111 yards on 21 carries and scored a touchdown. Against Parkview in the first-round state playoff game, he carried 25 times for 167

yards and two scores.

“Every time I tried to explode, I felt it,” Felix said of his hamstring pulling.

To help protect his hamstring, Felix played in what he described as a diaper - a wrap that provides support for those with hip injuries, groin pulls, quad strains, hamstring tears and the like. But, he knew the risk for re-aggravating the injury was still

there at the time.

“But, I wanted to play. That’s how passionate I was about Camden,” he explains.

 Felix said he played baseball for the Wildcats last spring without any further issues. Making first- team all-region as a second baseman, he batted

.356, led the region with five home runs hitting lead-off in the Camden order and drove in 23 runs while stealing 14 bases.

Felix said he hasn’t had any more hamstring

problems since returning to football in time for spring drills, either.

 “I’m 100 percent,” he said.

He had to deal with a different injury, though, early on. Felix suffered a broken hand during a padded practice in July. He had to wear a big cast on that broken hand during preseason camp and

through Camden’s first three games.

Still, with the Wildcats spreading the ball around in their Wing-T offense, he managed to run for 535 yards and eight touchdowns on 71 carries in Camden’s first seven games. He was averaging 7.5 yards per attempt   

when the team began Region                          1- AAAAAAA play last month.

Camden head coach Jeff Herron, who returned for a second stint with the program after leading the Wildcats to three state titles when he coached the

team previously, has been high on Felix and his overall talents from the start.

“With his running and blocking, he’s a complete back,” the veteran coach says. “He’s an every- down back at the next level. He can do it all.

“He’s got speed, power, quickness. He loves to block, so he’s good in pass protection. He’s a smart kid. There’s nothing missing.”

Felix is also fond of Herron, who coached his dad who has his same name. The elder Felix graduated in 2002 and was a linebacker/defensive end for

the Wildcats in Herron’s early years with the

program after he arrived from Oconee County which he led to a state title in 1999 in his last season there.

“He used to come to our rec league games,” Felix remembers. “Everyone knew when he was there. “We ran the Wing-T back then, so we knew we were going back to the basics when he came back. I was excited for everyone. You know you’re going

to play fast and physical with Coach Herron.”

Felix especially likes the physical part. Herron

found that out on the first day of spring practice back in May.

Felix really wasn’t expected at practice as the

Camden baseball team was returning home from its state playoff series at Grayson in Gwinnett County that afternoon.

But, Felix said he hopped off the bus after it pulled into the school parking lot, went to get dressed in his football gear and trotted onto the field for the first day of spring ball with Herron back in charge.

“The first opportunity he had to hit someone, he knocked the fool out of ‘em,” Herron said, smiling still as he recalled the moment.

“You don’t really see skill kids who like that

physicality like he does, and that’s really what

separates him from others as far as I’m

concerned.”

Camden planned to start playing Felix more on defense, too, during the region schedule and the playoffs, using him to chase down the ball as a linebacker. He played limited snaps on defense in an early-season game at Marietta and instantly made his presence felt, notching six tackles, two

tackles for loss and forcing a fumble.

“I’m down with it,” Felix said of playing linebacker. “I played all over the place growing up. I could easily be playing safety or linebacker. That’s all I know is how to hit.”

Felix said he plans to finish out the entire school year in Kingsland, largely because he will play his final year of high-school baseball in the spring.

In the meantime, he hopes several of these

scholarship offers will come his way in the form of letters of intent for him to sign to play college football with a good program. He wants to give baseball a try in college also.

Per Rivals, Felix has 20 football offers with his top interests being Florida, Oregon, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Central Florida where he worked out this summer during a visit to the school.

Felix wants to sign on the dotted line and then have his number called in the huddle next fall.

“I feel like at this stage of the game, whoever gets me is getting a steal,” he said.

 By Kevin Price

Photography by Jennifer Johnson

Platinum Gator

Henry Bates figures to be kicking a football for a college team next fall. There’s a good chance the Ware County kicker/punter won’t go to school on a football

scholarship, however.

That’s not because he isn’t good enough to

receive a scholarship offer from someone. The senior standout and All-State performer for the Gators definitely is.

When it comes to kickers, though, many are

invited to a team as a preferred walk-on and a scholarship comes down the line once they’re already on the team and contributing

between the lines. For example, that was the case with former University of Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blakenship who is now in his second season with the Indianapolis Colts.

That is also what happened with current

Georgia kicker Jack Podlesny who played for

Glynn Academy and went to Georgia as a

walk-on after graduating from Glynn in 2018.

He won the starting place-kicking job prior to

the start of last season and was put on

scholarship after making the game-winning

kick in the Peach Bowl.

Bates understands how it works with kickers

and colleges, but the good news for him is

that he doesn’t really need athletic money to

offset college expenses. He is guaranteed

academic money as a Zell Miller Scholarship

recipient as long as he goes to school in state. Should he attend a college in another state, there is still a good chance Bates can be awarded academic money there, too, based on his accomplishments in high school.

“I’m open to anything,” he says. “I just want a

chance. “But academics will be a major part of the decision as to where I go.”

Bates is the featured Scholar-Athlete for this

issue of the magazine. He holds a 4.0 grade-

point average and scored a 1,310 on the SAT.

A member of the National Honor Society and

Beta Club, Bates is a Georgia Certificate of

Merit recipient and a Slash Pine EMC

Scholarship recipient.

He also earned the distinction of Ware County Plantinum Senior, an honor presented to select seniors at the school who have earned all-around high marks during their previous three years at the school going into their senior year.

Bates has held the highest GPA on the Gators football team among those in his class since his freshman year. Last year, he had the highest GPA on the varsity team and was presented the Academic Award at the team’s postseason banquet.

Bates said he has made straight A’s

throughout high school and has actually made all A’s going all the way back to kindergarten.

“My parents want me to have good grades,

but really it’s something I do on my own,” he

points out. “I want to have good grades,

anyway.”

Bates notes that making all A’s hasn’t always

been easy. “Last year, I took two different math classes at the same time. I had to study and work a little harder, taking two at the same time,” he said.

Bates was taking Pre-Calculus and college

Algebra first semester and Calculus and

Statistics during the second term.

He said the hardest class he has taken at

Ware County was the Advance Placement

Psychology class he took as a sophomore. He

remembers it requiring a lot of studying.

“It was a lot of memorization, so it was really

time-consuming,” Bates says.

His favorite subject is math. He gave a simple

reason for that. “I like to have an answer,” Bates said.

Bates has a lot of interests, and therefore, he

isn’t exactly sure what he might like to major

in while in college. He thinks, though, he may

be end up pursuing a degree in business

management.

He is definitely interested in playing college

football while furthering his education. That,

he does know.

Ware head coach Jason Strickland, now in his

third season with the Gators, fully expects

Bates to get that opportunity.

“He’s an incredible kid and also one of the

most competitive kids you will ever be

around,” Strickland said. “It doesn’t matter

what it is, he wants to beat you. He’s super,

super competitive and wants to be as good as he can be at what he does.”

Bates also plays soccer at Ware. He played

that well before he fell in love with kicking a

football. But Strickland found out his first

season with the Gators that Bates considered himself a football player first and foremost.

A sophomore then, Bates hurt a hip early in

the season and Strickland figured he should

just stay sidelined and get ready for soccer

rather than trying to return to action too soon for football and risking further injury. Bates wasn’t having that.

“He told me he was a football guy,” the coach

remembers.

Bates has worked hard to make himself a

college football prospect. He handles the

kicking and punting duties for Ware, but most colleges are looking at him as a punter.

He was named a Max Preps All-American as a punter last season and also voted all-region and all-state as a punter. Going into this season, he made the state’s Top 100 Players by Georgia High School Football Daily and was named Preseason All-State by Recruit Georgia. Bates was the punter for the All-912 Sports Preseason team as well.

Bates first took an interest in kicking as an 8-

year-old after kicking off a tee at a friends’

house. He asked his parents to buy him one of his own so he could kick his football at home.

“I had one of those orange tees and kicked in

the front yard all the time,” he said. “If I got in

trouble, my parents would take it away for a

few days. I kicked every day.”

He vividly remembers his first field goal.

“I kicked it through my dad’s hands. It was the greatest thing in the world,” he said.

Some of his earliest instruction came from

Jimmy McClelland who used to work with him on Sunday afternoons after church. Jimmy Mac, as Bates called him, was a former Waycross High great who played for Wally Butts at Georgia.

While in high school, Bates has attended

numerous kicking camps offered by Kohl’s

Kicking. This past summer, he was invited to

visit several major schools including Georgia

Tech, Clemson, Georgia, Central Florida,

Southern Miss and Mississippi State.

He has already been asked to come to

Charleston Southern as a preferred walk-on.

“He’s an incredibly positive kid and will be

successful at whatever he does,” Strickland said.