independence high, NC - 109 game streak ends
Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:56 am
Adorning the wall of the Independence weight room is a sign boasting "Champions Start In Here" and the Patriots have been nothing short of that. "Anybody on our staff or any of our kids will tell you it's the key to our success," says defensive coordinator Bill Geiler. "It gives them confidence." Geiler remembers a time when Leak tried begging out of a workout, saying he had plans to lift later with a personal trainer his father had hired. "I went and told Knotts who picked up the telephone and told Chris, 'All right, call your daddy because you've got to play somewhere else. You can't play here if you're not going to lift,'" remembers Geiler. "That set the tone. If it's good enough for Chris Leak, it's good enough for everybody."
This is, after all, a program where Knotts jokes the school motto ought to be "Be Like Chris" after the celebrated quarterback, who set the high school record for career touchdown passes with 185 and ranks in the top 10 in eight other passing categories. Also on the wall of the Patriots' weight room is a blown-up photo of the 2000 championship team. "You can look at [Leak's] face, and he was our age," says Georgia-bound cornerback Makiri Pugh. "We can do it too. We owe it to him."