ON Air with 912 Sports

  By Kevin Price

Photos by Charles Smith 

Effingham head coach John Ford wasn’t worried about having a new starting quarterback going into last season. 

Yes, he lost a really good one to graduation in Nate Hayes who led the Rebels to a region championship in 2023 while winning Offensive Player of the Year honors in Region 1-AAAAA a second straight season, too. 

But the Effingham coach knew Tucker Perkins would be a good quarterback, too. And boy, Ford was definitely right about his junior signal-caller. 

Last season, Perkins started fast and never looked back, compiling passing statistics that ranked him among the top signal-callers in the state for the 2024 season. And now, Perkins is back at the controls of the Effingham offense for what he hopes is an even better season for both the Rebels and himself. 

“He was more than ready during his sophomore year,” Ford said. “We were fortunate to have the top offensive player in the region two straight years. Tucker got some run that year when Nate was a senior, and he gave us a sneak preview of what he could do. There was never a doubt in my mind that he’d have a lot of success when his time came.”

Last year, Perkins came out firing on all cylinders for the Rebels. He threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener against Houston County, a game the Rebels actually lost 44-41. 

The next week, Perkins led the Effingham offense to a 41-point outburst in 16 minutes as the Rebels overcame a 30-point deficit to New Hampstead before ultimately still falling short on the scoreboard as they lost 47-44 in the home opener. 

The next week, Perkins missed three quarters with a shoulder injury, and the Rebels would fall to Brunswick at home 42-20 in the region opener while dropping to 0-3 on the season. 

But with Perkins leading the way for their high-powered offense, the Rebels would win six of their final seven regular-season games to make the state playoffs as the No. 3 seed from Region 1 before losing in the first round at East Paulding. 

Perkins, who is 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, threw for 3,014 yards and 36 touchdowns last season with and was among the top 5 in Class AAAAA for passing yards for the season. 

“I had run the offense since middle school,” Perkins said, “so I’d always known the offense. We had glimpses of our offense in there in middle school.

“The start I had gave me a lot of confidence, and the coaches gave me more and more to do as the season went on.”

Ford noted that Perkins did have a good grasp of the offense from the first game of the season, but his physical and mental abilities as the quarterback gave the offensive coaches a chance to expand the offensive playbook.

“Our offense is pretty voluminous to begin with, but as he grew and developed, we added more to his plate,” the head coach added. “Our quarterback has to know the offense and be able to put the ball down the field, and with Tucker, there’s a lot of things he’s good at. He doesn’t just have one club in his bag, he has a complete set.”

Perkins is more athletic than some want to give him credit for, according to Ford, but his arm-strength and accuracy are both obvious when he throws tight spirals to his receivers and hits them in stride. 

His other abilities set him apart from your average prep quarterback, though, according to Ford. 

“He’s fun to coach, has great work habits. He does a lot of things well,” Ford pointed out. “He reads defenses pretty well, understands where to go with the ball. He understands protections and our running game and knows how to get us into the right play.

“We’re heavy run-pass-option, so he has to know whether to run or pass and call out the protections. We oftentimes have two plays called, and he has to get us in the right one.”

Perkins entered this season ready to build on his individual accomplishments from last fall. But he isn’t focused on any personal goals like throwing for a certain number of yards or touchdowns. He’s most interested in winning games on Friday nights, he says. 

“You just let that come. You can’t set goals like that,” Perkins said in reference to setting statistical goals. “My teammates talked about my stats last year, but I wasn’t into all that.”

Perkins knew, however, he had a good group of skill players around him coming into this season that could certainly help him post big numbers as the Rebels hoped to battle for the region championship and make some noise come playoff time. 

He is confident in the Effingham offensive scheme and the team’s personnel, and Perkins said he spent the offseason working to sharpen up his own skills and improve in certain areas. 

“One thing I have worked on is just getting quicker,” he noted. “I’ve definitely tried to work on my mobility, doing a lot of escape drills and things like that.”

Perkins wants to play college football, but he didn’t have any scholarship offers coming into this season. Both the Effingham head coach and the quarterback are optimistic about those rolling in as his senior season unfolds. 

“A lot of people have shown interest,” Perkins said. 

“He’s kind of a ‘tweener, height-wise and size-wise right now,” Ford added. “A lot of the smaller Divison I schools are taking a wait-and-see approach, but a lot of the schools smaller than them think he’s going to be too good for them to get. I’m pretty confident he will have several offers when it’s all said and done.” 

   By Kevin Price

Photos by Mike Brinson

  Frederica Academy head coach Brandon Derrick could have predicted that Fuller Wimberly would ace his interview for this story. 

The fact that Wimberly came across as a kid who has his act together didn’t surprise the veteran coach in the least. 

Derrick has been impressed with his senior offensive and defensive lineman since his freshman season with the Knights. Wimberly’s passion for football and his cerebral abilities are two of the biggest reasons he has been a mainstay in the trenches for the Frederica football team.

“He’s been a starter for us for four years,” Derrick said. “He’s played every position on the offensive line - guard, tackle and now center. He’s been in the middle of our defensive line the last three years as the starting noseguard. 

“He’s a good kid, very knowledgeable. He’s always working hard.”

The featured Scholar-Athlete in this edition of 912 Sports Magazine, Wimberly is definitely a top-notch student-athlete who excels in the classroom, too. He carries a 4.05 grade-point average while taking a rigorous course load at the private school on St. Simons Island that competes in the Georgia Independent Athletic Association.

Wimberly has already taken several Advanced Placement classes that have earned him college credits, and as a senior this year, he will take several more before graduating. His AP classes this year will include Micro and Macro Economics, American Government, Comparitive Government, English Litarature and Physics. 

“I’ve learned to listen better in lectures,” he says. “For me, learning is 100 percent seeing and hearing and asking questions.

“I like science classes. I find those interesting, especially biology and learning how things work. I also like history as well. That’s a big one for me, the hows and whys and why nots. I really like U.S. history in general.”

Wimberly makes the Headmaster’s list at Frederica every semester, but he also usually grades out well when the Knights football coaches watch game film. He was thrown into the fire as a starter in ninth grade for the Knights who aren’t blessed with a lot of depth on either side of the ball. 

“We don’t have a lot of numbers, so he really didn’t have much choice,” said Derrick about Wimberly starting as a freshman. “But he’s improved every year and anchors our offensive and defensive lines. He knows everything we are doing. He gets everyone set up on defense and makes the calls up front on offense.”

Derrick pointed out that Wimberly also excels in the weight room, where he has a chance to possibly break the school lift-record on squats currently held by former record-setting running back Jordan Triplett. 

“He can bench 400 pounds, and he can squat 600,” the coach noted. “He’s a strong kid. He’s in the weight room all the time.”

Wimberly said he enjoys playing both sides of the ball. He likes reacting and getting physical on defense while pointing out that playing on the offensive line requires thinking your way through a game to play well. 

“The bottom line is playing football is fun,” Wimberly said. 

He also plays the guitar as a hobby. Wimberly says he is mostly self-taught. He takes band as an elective during the school day and plays the guitar during this time in a small band that includes several other students who have teamed to form a rock group they’re now calling the “Red Herring.”

Wimberly said they have performed several shows at school and also have played for an audience at a local restaurant on St. Simons Island. He said the band has also already signed up for Brunswick Porchfest in early November. This is a popular community event in Old Town Brunswick during which local and area bands perform on porch fronts on a Sunday afternoon each fall and people roam from place to place, listening to the music that fills the air across the downtown area. 

Wimberly also has a pretty good idea regarding a future career choice, too. He is thinking about attending college as a pre-med major with thoughts of one day possibly becoming an orthopedic surgeon. This summer, he interned with a local podiatry practice where his stepdad is employed and got to shadow the doctors during a few foot and ankle surgeries. 

“The best part was I got to see what they were doing and ask a lot of questions about what they were doing and why they were doing it a certain way,” Wimberly said. 

He will be applying to several colleges starting this fall while playing out his senior football season with the Knights.