The Milton Eagles have not made the Georgia high-school playoffs this century. They have not beaten archrival Roswell this century and, until the first game of the 2008 season, they had not beaten North Fulton neighbor Chattahoochee since the turn of the century.
The team went 6-4 last year in head coach Scott Walker’s first season, the first time the Eagles have had a winning record since the 90s. Milton has already broken some other recent patterns and looks forward to breaking more in 2008.
“Our goal short-term is to compete every Friday night. If we do that, we’ll have a chance to win a bunch of them,” explained Walker. “Obviously, we’d like to beat Roswell, something that hasn’t happened in a long time here. One of our goals was to beat Chattahoochee. We hadn’t done that in 10years. We got that done last Friday night. And, we’d like to put ourselves in position to get in the playoffs. Again, it hadn’t been done here in a long time.”
CARRYING THE LOAD
One thing in Milton’s corner is star running back Toney Williams. The senior ran for over 800 yards last season and is “Mr. Dependable” for the Eagles.
“He’s a workhorse. He’s a big, strong, physical player that is tough to tackle” Walker said. “He comes in with a couple broken fingers, a sore wrist, sore body, (but) he doesn’t miss a snap. You can count on him. And to me, that’s one of the best attributes he’s got.”
Williams definitely looked like he could shoulder the load during the team’s season opener against Chattahoochee, as the Tennessee commit rushed for 355 yards on 40 carries. The talented senior also caught one pass for good measure, a screen that he took 26 yards into the end zone for his seventh touchdown of the game. And the talented back expects a similar amount of touches in each game.
“I’ll probably get that amount of carries every week now,” Williams said. “Most of the offense is on me, so I have to have my mind right and be prepared every week.”
In addition to being the leader on the field for Milton, Williams also is quite the role model off of it.
“Off the field, he’s a wonderful, wonderful person that everybody at the school loves to be around,” gushed his proud coach. “Teachers love him, administrators love him. He’s never been in a lick of trouble since I’ve been here. He’s everything you want in a student-athlete.”
Williams will be graduating from Milton early and will enroll at the University of Tennessee in January. The 6-foot-1 227-pounder is ranked as 57th-best running back in the nation among high school seniors, according to Scout.com. He committed to the Vols in early May and is done with the recruiting process.
“When you go up (to Knoxville), you can see that the team is like a big family,” he said. “I’m originally from Tennessee. I also like how Tennessee has the tradition of using the power back.”
The Milton football fans hope that before Williams leaves for Knoxville, he can help the Eagles accomplish some things they haven’t done in a long time. Getting to the playoffs and beating the hated Roswell Hornets would be a nice start.
Black can be reached at sblack@scoreatl.com.
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