Gamble, Young our County’s best
- Updated: December 18, 2014
Oxford RB, Saks LB recognized as East Alabama Sports Today Players of the Year
Oxford’s Tre Gamble was voted County Offensive Player of the Year by the coaches. On the cover, Saks linebacker Monty Young was voted Defensive Player of the Year. (Photos by Greg McWilliams)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
A top-flight receiver who accepted a move to running back for the betterment of his team and a linebacker considered the quarterback of his defense are the inaugural East Alabama Sports Today Calhoun County Players of the Year.
Oxford athlete Tre Gamble is the Offensive Player of the Year. Saks linebacker Monty Young is the Defensive Player of the Year.
The winners were determined by a Heisman Trophy-style vote of the county’s 13 head football coaches and the races couldn’t be more different.
Gamble ran away with the vote on offense the way he ran away from opposing defenders; he showed first or second on 11 ballots. The voting on defense was a lot tighter with one point separating each of the top three vote-getters and four points separating the top four; Young was first or second on five ballots.
Under the rules of the voting, the panel was asked to select their top five choices from separate pools of nominated offensive and defensive players. Voters were permitted to select their own players but they couldn’t be placed any higher than third.
Oxford coach Ryan Herring considered Gamble the best receiver in the state coming into the season, but when the Yellow Jackets needed a boost in offense they moved the senior to running back and both flourished. Gamble rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and accounted for 2,137 offensive yards and 28 touchdowns. He lost three fumbles in more than 230 carries, and two of those came on a sloppy night.
“We got to Game 2 and you just could see it was kind of inevitable we were going to have to have some help at running back,” Herring said. “We put him in there just in jumbo sets against Gadsden City and we just all of a sudden scored points. … To help us win, to help us get in the playoffs, we needed him at running back.”
Young was in the middle of everything on Saks’ defense. He got everyone in the right position, addressed any issue that happened on the field and then dominated the opposition. He recorded 144 tackles, seven sacks, 10 tackles for loss and had one interception, one fumble recovery and forced two fumbles.
“I was just trying to be the best I could be,” he said.
Both players will be featured individually on the website in the coming days.
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