JV Spear follows in brother’s footsteps
Elijah Pappin has big shoes to fill.
Older brother Jarrel Pappin was the defensive MVP last season in the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior football loop and helped lead the Saint Paul Patriots to a Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championship and a berth in an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations bowl game.
“He’s the reason I started playing football,” said 15-year-old Elijah this week, as his Niagara Junior Varsity Spears squad prepared for Friday’s playoff road game against the London Junior Mustangs. “I want to be just like him.”
Junior Varsity Spears head coach Bill Crawford sees similarities between the six foot, 200-pound player and his older brother.
“He is a lot like his brother and has a lot of the same talent,” Crawford said. “He is just younger and he started earlier.”
The Spears’ coaches are always on Elijah to make sure he reaches his potential.
“Eljiah is his own worst enemy,” Crawford said. “He has more potential than most kids his age and he shows it on game day. But if he worked his butt off all the time, he would probably be the top defensive end in the province.
“He has that much ability.”
All he needs to do is heed the advice he’s receiving.
“We’re telling him not to do it the hard way,” Crawford said. “Get in the gym now, get your grades up, do all the things you have to and do it the right way so you don’t have to go an extra year of school and all that other stuff just to upgrade.”
It’s a message the Grade 10 student at Saint Paul has heard already.
“My coaches at Saint Paul told me if I keep working out that I could make it places so I am pushing myself to do better,” he said.
Elijah lifts weights every day that he doesn’t have football practice and his goal is to play football at the university level.
“I just want to be a football player because I love the sport,” he said. “I really love hitting.”
Spears defensive coordinator Nathan Greene loves what the defensive end brings to the field.
“His technique is strong, his motor to the ball is fantastic and physically, he’s overpowering at the point of attack,” he said. “He has to recognize the plays and act accordingly.”
Greene felt Pappin had a bit of a slow start to the season but has excelled as the year rolled along.
“Without question, his biggest ability is to overpower at the point of attack and dominate the player in front of him,” he said.
Pappin feels his game has improved this season.
“I get around the defender better and I able to use a lot more different techniques.”
He is in his second year with the Spears.
“It’s a good community,” he said. “The teammates I am with encourage me to do better.”
London had a perfect 8-0 regular season and the Spears (3-5) will need to be better in the game being played at TD stadium. Niagara hung tough until the fourth quarter versus London during the regular season before losing 43-21.
“They just execute and that’s how they beat teams,” Pappin said. “If we can execute, we can beat him.”
Crawford agreed with that assessment.
“Coming out for the first week of the season, they looked like they were in Week 4 and 5,” he said. “They have talent and they execute.”
