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Practice could not start soon enough
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer WESLEY CHAPEL -- The tailback who set a county rushing record last season, the same player who led the state by scoring 36 touchdowns as a junior, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds Monday afternoon. And Tyrone Tomlin couldn't be happier. As the county's high school football teams took the field for their first practices, few players did so with more anticipation than Tomlin, who spent the past four months in rehabilitation after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in March. The Wesley Chapel standout is used to running the 40 as fast as 4.4 seconds, but the stopwatch Monday showed more about his patience than his speed. Coach John Castelamare made a friendly wager with his senior tailback, telling him he'd buy him a Gatorade if his time was in the 4s. "He thought I was going to get a 5-something," Tomlin said. "So I got him." His torn anterior cruciate ligament has healed, and Tomlin's confidence is coming back a little more every day. Tomlin will be held out of contact drills for the next month and will sit out the Wildcats' season opener against Lake Placid. Doctors have tentatively set the second week of the season for his return, but Tomlin was happy with another small step Monday. "Right now, I'm not working on my speed," Tomlin said. "I'm working getting it out of my head that I can't do anything. There's still a little doubt in my head, that I'm kind of scared, but I'm ready. I feel real comfortable where I am." Castelamare opens fall drills with a bang, putting players through Ironman drills designed to test how well his team has kept itself in shape in the offseason. In addition to a bench-press and leg-press test in the weight room, players must run 10-yard and 40-yard sprints, a half-mile, and participate in other grueling workouts. Tomlin, who went to rehab sessions four times a week this summer to keep his leg muscles strong, improved on his personal best in the leg press at 630 pounds. He improved in the bench press as well. And as for the half-mile? "He made it," Castelamare said. "This was a big test for him today," said Castelamare, noting that Tomlin has dominated the Ironman competition in past seasons. "He's not going to be the old Ty yet, but he broke his record in the leg press. We'll take him coming along as he can." Tomlin has five weeks of drills before his first game, and Castelamare said he won't face contact until the week he's cleared to play. Because he has focused his summer on rehabilitating his knee, he's not in the same physical condition as he has been in past years. "I'm out of shape," said Tomlin, who weighed in at 209 pounds Monday, up 20 pounds from spring drills and well above his playing weight of 195 last fall. But a month of drills will go a long way toward getting Tomlin back to the form that allowed him to rush for 1,731 yards last season at an average of 9.4 yards per carry. His conditioning will return, he said, and his confidence with it. And as for his sprinting, Tomlin is content with 4.9 but is setting his sights on faster times. He has another friendly bet with teammate Greg Harrison, who leads a talented group of backs set to spell him in the early season. Harrison is faster now, Tomlin concedes, but just wait until track season. "I'm going to get him back, I'm going to beat him running," Tomlin said. "100-yard dash." Harrison, walking by with a smile, says "When you get that 10.65, you come and holler." "He knows he's going to lose," Tomlin said. "I'm thinking about a 10.4."
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From today's Pasco Times Letters |
