Claremore Daily Progress

Sports

August 31, 2010

Mills, Devore plan to be big-time performers while anchoring Eagles’ defense

Larry Larkin Sports Correspondent

SEQUOYAH — Being a senior on the Sequoyah Eagle football team carries some serious responsibilities. Seniors are expected to start and they are expected to be the team leaders. Both Brian Mills and Zac Devore recognize and accept these expectations.

To an outsider it looks like the 2010 season is going to be a rebuilding year for the Eagles. Only three starters on offense and three on defense are returning from last year's 10-3 team.

 Among the key players on that squad as underclassmen were Mills and Devore.

Now as seniors, each knows it is time for them to step up big and assume the important leadership roles.

Both also agree with their head football coach Jody Iams: Sequoyah doesn't rebuild following heavy graduation, they just plug some newly created holes.

“We have had a good summer of conditioning drills and we are ready to put on the pads,” said Mills the day before the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association's sanctioned date for fall practice, “There has been between 25 and 30 (including 10 seniors) of us working out four days a week. It is now our time to step up.”

Teammate Devore, a young man who doesn't waste many words, feels the same.

“For most of us this will be our final year to play organized football,” points out Devore, “For us seniors, this is our time.”

Until some of the underclass are ready to step in, both Mills and Devore are slated to see double duty.

Mills, 18, is 5-9, 180 pounds. He is back to handle one of the linebacker positions. It appears he will also be one of at least four players to split time at running back.

For 17-year-old Devore, at 5-11, 170, he is also in the running back picture. He promises to a stopper on defense while manning an unyielding force at corner.

The son of Doug and Debbie Mills, Brian has been attending Sequoyah schools since the sixth grade. He has played football since the third and still remembers scoring his first touchdown.

“It came in the fourth grade and I ran 20 yards against Broken Arrow for the TD,” Mills said, “I guess my individual biggest high school thrill was last year against Cascia Hall. Coming from my linebacker spot I made a tackle for a five-yard lost.”

While Mills now limits his athletic skills to the gridiron, buddy Zac is a two-sport letterman. The son of Darren and Crecia Devore is a starter for the Eagle basketball team.

“I suffered a broken arm playing football as an eighth grader and I have had some trouble with my knee, but both are fully healed now,” reported Devore.

Mills played baseball and basketball as well as football when he was younger.

“I decided to quit baseball after the sixth grade and then gave up on basketball when I messed up a knee as a freshman,” Mills added, “Now it is just football. Football and making good grades is what I am concentrating on this year as a senior.

Carrying a 4.0 grade point average, Mills is working toward obtaining an academic scholarship to Oklahoma State University. His plans include receiving a degree in engineering.

Devore has not decided which direction he will take following graduation.

“To play sports here the coaches insist we keep our grades up and I am doing that,” he said, “As for the future I'm not certain what awaits. Getting a job right away or going on to college, I just don't know yet.”

For the first time in several years, Devore and Mills and their teammates will not play neighboring rival Oologah.

“The Mustangs dropped us from their schedule,” Miles pointed out,

“It would have been another good game, I think, because they had some good people coming back.”

“That's right, but now we get to play a school from out of state,” jumped in Devore, “and we are looking forward to a new challenge.”

Siloam Springs, Arkansas will invade Sequoyah's Pope Athletic Complex on Friday, September 3, for the season opener.

“That should be fun. We don't know them and they don't know us. Like Coach (Iams) says, we just want to line up and play our game and see if we can beat them,” the Eagle pair said in agreement.

Starting with Siloam and following with Class 4A No. 2 Glenpool and then a rugged Class 3A-6 district schedule, the new look Eagles have a tough row in front of them.

Mills and Devore and the rest of the team are ready to get it started. 

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