October 9, 2009
I left work early (I work in our family’s furniture business, “Kane Furniture”) and went to see the player who will be the top college football prospect in the state of Virginia next year! In other words, he’s presently in the eleventh grade, so he’s a member of the Class of 2011! His name is Curtis Grant and he wears number 14 for Hermitage High School of Henrico, Virginia. He’s listed at 6-2 215. His Hermitage High School Panthers were playing a road game against Mills Godwin High of Richmond, Virginia. Mills Godwin High is very close to state route 64 (I took the photo while driving on Route 64 from Charlottesville to Richmond), so it was easy for me to get to the high school! Finally! A high school that was easy to locate! I
I left Charlottesville, Virginia at 5:30 P.M. Usually I leave much earlier than that to see a 7:00 P.M. game! However I couldn’t get off of work any earlier. Besides, the previous day, on my way to Hampton, Virginia, I had stopped to drive the exact route from Route 64 East to Mills Godwin High School, so that I’d know exactly how to get to Mills Godwin. By 6:04 P.M., I passed a sign that said it was 36 miles to Richmond.
At 6:23 P.M., I was in my car on Route 64 listening to FM radio station 100.9 and the disc jockey said…”Y101, Richmond’s rock alternative!” A band was singing “You know that I need…somebody, someone like you!” I later found out that the band and song was “Kings Of Leon” singing “Use Somebody.” Not my kind of music. Very depressing. But to each his own!
I got to the high school at 6:38 P.M. on this Friday, 10-9-09. The game started at 7:00 P.M. On the very first play, Mills Godwin lost the ball on a fumble! Curtis Grant played on field goal teams on offense as a blocker behind the offensive line. All seven photos of players on this page are of Curtis Grant , and he’s wearing jersey number 14. Because he’s supposed to be the best player in the state for next year, I decided: Why not take as many photos of him as I can if this is the only time I’ll scout him this season?! His team kicked a 23-yard field goal and led 3-0 at the 4:58 mark. Hermitage High’s defense intercepted a pass at the 3:09 point of the first quarter. Curtis Grant came back out on to the field to block again at 11:05 of the second period, and Hermitage took a 6-0 lead on another field goal, this time from 25 yards-out.
Curtis Grant made a great defensive play at the 9:12 point of the second quarter. On a third-and-one for Mills Godwin High, Curtis Grant went in to the Mills Godwin High backfield and stuffed the running back behind the line of scrimmage, turning it in to a 4th-and-one situation. Someone in the stands yelled “Way to go, Curtis!” At the 0:59 mark of the second quarter, Hermitage High ran the ball in from the four yard-line, and the Panthers led 13-0. Much thanks to the “Richmond Times-Dispatch” for the game write-up here that I used for extra information for my scouting report on my page!
Curtis Grant had 12 tackles and Hermitage went on to win 27-0. The Panthers are now 4-1. He looks like a big-time athlete. Is he a REALLY big-time athlete? The jury is out. But he should be highly-recruited. I wouldn’t say that he’s a once-in-a-lifetime player, no. In other words, he’s not a player who could be one of the top ten high school players in the nation next year, or anything like that. I would say, from what I’ve seen, that he could be the number one prospect in the state next year, however. Yep!
With 6:53 left in the third quarter, Hermitage High threw a 3-yard TD pass to make it 20-0. Then with 5:46 left, Hermitage ran the ball in from the 4 yard-line to make the final score 27-0. The game ended at exactly 9 P.M.! It was very easy getting out of the parking lot: high school games are not like college games, where everyone is in a mad dash to get in to their cars and back home. People are very relaxed as far as getting out of the stadium and walking back to their cars after high school football games! Maybe because it’s a younger crowd! I was back home in Charlottesville, Virginia at 10:10 P.M.!
Finally, it was very difficult for me to scout Hermitage High’s players on their successful 4-1 team. Although the home school, Mills Godwin, did provide a Hermitage roster in the game program, it didn’t list the heights and weights of the Hermitage players. Also, Hermitage High didn’t provide a 2009-2010 roster on the internet anywhere? How come?! One player to note is Hermitage’s freshman placekicker Josh Stiebel, who also is a soccer player. But kickers develop at different rates!
