Marquis Dickens and Sam Kirkland; Style and Substance
School has been underway for just a few weeks and the air has finally gotten a little cooler on this particular September afternoon. Classes are done for the day and a few Deep Creek High football players have already come onto the school's practice field.
It's still early in the week but the Hornets only have a few more days to prepare for their upcoming opponent, the Indian River Braves. Games between Deep Creek and Indian River are traditionally tight, but this year's match-up is suddenly that much more attractive after the Braves upset one of the region's best, the Hampton Crabbers, the week before.
There doesn't seem to be any panic in the Hornets' camp though. The team is loose and ready to get down to business for the day and it only takes a few minutes to see why.
The team begins the practice by stretching and two of the players begin to stand out from rest. Senior linebacker Marquis Dickens and senior quarterback/safety Sam Kirkland aren't just leading the team stretches, they are grooving to them.
From a distance, it is unclear if Kirkland, 17, and Dickens, 18, are actually singing a tune but whether out loud or in their heads, they are moving to it; and some of the other players are beginning to move to it as well.
Beyond their dance steps, Kirkland and Dickens aren't hard to miss on the field. They come across as the biggest players out there and not because of size and stature but because of their personalities and leadership.
They appear to have a little flashy streak in them as indicated by their cool and confident mannerisms and by Kirkland's diamond studded earrings. But they are also surprisingly polite as they pepper their responses with a surplus of "yes, sirs" and "no, sirs".
They are both style and substance; a coach's dream and an opponent's nightmare.
"I get to take out my aggression," the 6'2'', 215 lbs. Dickens says about why he likes to play the game. "I bring a signature to the defense; big plays, big hits, I always am talking to the (defensive) line."
He's not the only one talking.
It doesn't matter if it's on the field or in a conversation, once Kirkland gets going, good luck trying to stop him. "I'm very verbal," the quarterback with 4.5 speed says, "I try to keep the guys pumped. If we're having a down practice I try to get the guys hyped a lot." He continues without pausing. "I like to jump around and get everybody an edge, get them focused. I'm probably more of a rah-rah guy at the game time but more laid back in practice."
"Sam's my boy," Dickens says of his quarterback and friend. "We've been cool since the eighth grade and have been playing (varsity) football together since our sophomore year."
Kirkland agrees. "Me and Marquis are real tight," he says, "We talk to each other all the time on the phone about practice and I tell him, 'You lead that defense, I'll hold the O down.'"
"We're almost like brothers," Dickens adds.
Both have gone somewhat under the radar the past few years but they are looking to change that in 2006 and even though their main focus is on restoring Deep Creek to prominence in the Southeastern District, both would like make some noise of their own in their final season. "I need my name on All-District, All-Tidewater, All-something," Dickens says, "I need that so that I can go to college somewhere."
Fortunately for Dickens, colleges are beginning to notice as the two have already begun to garner some interest from universities in conferences as big as the Atlantic Coast (ACC) and the Southeastern (SEC). They can only hope that as the season goes on, that interest will turn into offers.
They'll be other days to worry about all of that, but for right now the upcoming game with Indian River looms quietly overhead. Dickens and Kirkland aren't worried though. They've been in big games before and know what it will take to get the job done this week and for the rest of the season.
And that's a tune the whole team can groove to.
