Jaheim Covington has been named the Daily Journal’s Athlete of the Week for Oct. 27-Nov. 2.
Covington is a senior running back for the Richmond Senior varsity football team where he has been a starter for the past two seasons.
In the regular season home finale against Seventy-First, he ran for a team-high 105 yards and three touchdowns to help secure the 45-6 victory.
“Being that it was our last home game, I had to play hard,” said Covington. “I think it went real good and as planned. Coach (Bryan Till) said we were gonna do a lot of running.”
The veteran tailback has made a career off long, bone-bruising gallops, and he says he wanted regain the same form as last year where he finished third in the conference with 1,254 yards and reeled of 7.5 yards per carry.
Against the Falcons on Friday, a different tactic helped him reach pay dirt on a 48-yard run that put the game away in the third quarter.
“I saw the two (defenders) coming and I was wondering if I was gonna cut back, or just trust my speed…so I just trust my speed and scored,” said Covington.
Till spoke about how special the big play was for his lead back to go out with over 100 yards rushing on his Senior Night.
“The biggest thing was obviously the reads initially, but the acceleration to split the safeties was incredible,” Till said of the long sprint.
“That was huge for him to be able to hit those milestones and have a big game,” added Till.
Covington says he wants to further increase his current total of 938 rushing yards and his weekly goal is to surpass 100 yards on the ground. He feels as if reading the holes better and striving for positive yardage on every down and eliminating negative gains will help him accomplish that.
With one more regular season game left, he has a conference-leading 18 rushing touchdowns and a stunning 9.7 yards per carry average.
“He’s all over the place on the practice field and it’s not an accident why he’s successful on Friday nights, because he works hard,” Till said Covington’s success.
For more from Covington and Till, watch this short video.
