Wolcott, Echeverria stand among state's best
Dec. 6—NASHVILLE — Friendship Christian's Tyson Wolcott and Mt. Juliet's Daniel Echeverria were in a room with the best high school football players in Tennessee during the annual Mr. Football awards ceremony yesterday at Nissan Stadium.
Both finished among the finalists in their respective classes.
Wolcott, who rushed for more than 2,000 yards during the regular season and went over 3,000 in last week's BlueCross Bowl, saw Jackson Christian's Jay'Len Mosley take the Mr. Football award in Division II-A.
Echeverria, Mt. Juliet's punter/kicker, took home a finalist plaque after Knoxville Halls' Owen Taylor was named Kicker of the Year, an honor which covers both divisions. Also finishing as a kicking finalist was Tullahoma's Grant Chadwick, whose father, Richie, played soccer for Cumberland University in the 1990s.
"I'm just super grateful I can be named a Mr. Football finalist," said Wolcott, who finished his Friendship career with 5,369 yards, "It would have been a pleasure to be named Mr. Football. But it's a blessing to be called Mr. Football finalist.
"There's a lot of talent everywhere in here today."
As far as his coach is concerned, Wolcott is the best player in his classification.
"There's nobody I would pick, and that's just me and yeah I'm his coach, but I try to be honest in analyzing it, but Tyson's the best player in our league across the state," Commander coach John McNeal said. "No question. Not even close. Offense, defense, he's the best player. He carried our team. And that's the big thing. It's not only is he the best offensive and defensive player, it's also can you carry a team where it needs to go, and he did.
"It's like anything else, the Heisman, anything else. It's always something where some people felt the person who didn't get it, should have got it. And I'm going to feel that way just because I believe he is the best."
Echeverria, who will be a senior next year, averaged 40.2 yards on 18 punts, placing eight inside the 20-yard line; hit 10 of 12 field goals (both misses coming outside the 40), all 30 extra points and placed 44 of 49 kickoffs into the end zone, was also grateful to be on hand.
"Just being here is a great opportunity," Echeverria said. "I'm just grateful and thankful for what I got this year. Being here is a big win for me."
He said that during the season he was focused on that week's game and not thinking about end-of-season awards.
"Now that I'm here I see all the work we put in, that I put in, and how good we all did during the week and the season and I'm so glad to be here," he said.
"It's huge for him and the program," Mt. Juliet coach Trey Perry said. "He's the kind of kid who would say that first. It wouldn't be about him. It'd be about the guys who go out there every day with him. He's such a consummate professional. Probably a lot more mature than me. He just goes about his day, not just his football day, but his day in general with utmost professionalism. And I think that speaks to his accuracy and being able to do these things in the clutch on Friday nights. It just carries over."
