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Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Jamarl Payton, Lance Tillison have increased Armwood's talent pool.

By KEITH NIEBUHR
Published December 8, 2005

	[Times photo: Brian Cassella]
	Lance Tillison, left, scored the winning TD last week for Armwood, while cousin Jamarl Payton leads the team in INTs with five.

SEFFNER - He can see it in their eyes.

He can tell by the way they walk, the way they act, the way they smile.

When Armwood wide receiver Mat Brevi looks at Jamarl Payton and Lance Tillison, he sees two teammates who are noticeably difference from when he met them in September.

"They're a lot more at ease," Brevi said.

Right now, life is good for Payton and Tillison, valuable starters on an Armwood team that plays Ponte Vedra Beach Nease on Saturday in Miami for the Class 4A championship. But in the recent past, the lives of both were ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina.

"There was a time when I didn't think I'd play high school football again," Payton said.

When Katrina came ashore Aug. 29, its water and winds packed a powerful one-two punch that left the players' hometown of Slidell, La., devastated. Their school, Salmen High, was destroyed. Their homes were ruined. Both lost most of their possessions.

Shameka Tomlinson, a cousin of Tillison's and a Slidell native living in Florida, decided to help. Her fiance, Rudy Burney, played football at Armwood in the late 1980s, and had gotten to know Tillison and his mother during trips to Louisiana.

"When I heard what was happening, l got a big smile on my face and said, "I know what to do; just tell them to come here,' " Burney said.

Tillison was on a plane bound for Tampa the next day. Later that week, his mother, three brothers and Payton, his cousin, drove a rental SUV to Brandon, where they would live in a hotel until just before Thanksgiving (they're now in an apartment). At Armwood, the players were welcomed with open arms.

"Everybody made us feel like family," Payton said. "They really made us feel like this was home."

Payton, a 6-foot, 180-pound cornerback who chose to live here instead of staying in Slidell with his parents, needed only a few weeks to break into the starting lineup. He will enter the final with a team-high five interceptions and is among the program's best defensive backs in recent memory.

For Tillison, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound wide receiver, finding the field took time and patience. Not long after arriving here, he broke his right foot on a routine play in practice. When he arrived back at the hotel that night, he wondered what else could go wrong and began to sob.

At first, doctors said he might return in a few weeks. But a few weeks turned into several weeks and there were times when it appeared his season might be lost. Finally, he was given the go-ahead to play in Armwood's playoff opener.

In Tillison's first few outings, he still wasn't in game shape, but with every week his role increased. A week ago, he etched himself into Armwood lore in the Hawks' 37-34 win against Miami Washington by catching six passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns, including the winner with eight seconds left, an over-the-shoulder catch on a fade.

"I said all along before the season was through, both of them were going to make a big impact," Hawks coach Sean Callahan said.

Three months ago, Payton and Tillison were two young men looking for some normalcy in their lives. At Armwood they found that and much more. To both, the events of recent months are still a blur, but each said he feels blessed by how things have transpired.

"I can't even explain it," Tillison said. "It means a lot. It'll probably all hit me after (Saturday's) game."

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:51:07]