James Lucas is the kind of guy upon which coaches build programs, said those who have shepherded the blue chip gridder through his formative years. The 6-foot, 285-pound Ware County High senior is on several college radars thanks largely to his athletic skills. However, his do-right attitude and commitment to excellence have also paved the path to success, a journey his dad said started when he was just 15 months old.
“God’s true gift – that’s what he’s been,” Tim Lucas said. “He is as close to a perfect child as any parent can ask for. Everything I ever told James to do,, he always did it the first time. He always listened.”
Diligent ways produced top grades throughout elementary school, and Lucas has maintained his scholarly ways ever since. The first “B” didn’t appear on a report card until sixth grade, and a “C” has never found its way there. A National Honor Society member, Lucas bears a GPA that hovers in the neighborhood of 3.9. His workload has consistently featured honors and AP classes, including a current offering of AP college math. Lucas scored 1140 on the SAT and 24 on the ACT.
“My favorite subject is actually science,” he said. “I like physics and knowing how objects move. I took psychology last year, even though it’s a social science. I’ve tossed around things like sports medicine and nursing as possible careers and then even considered another direction like mechanics. But right now I just really don’t know what my college major will be.”
Here and now, Lucas and his affinity for moving things bodes well in his role as a two-sport athlete at WCHS, where he also wrestles. His weight room max totals include 350 pounds on the bench press, 495 pounds in power cleans, and 260 pounds in squats. His football talents have taken him to campus visits at Faulkner University in Alabama and Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky, both faith-based schools that compete in the NAIA. There has also been some interested all the way up to Division-1 and Middle Tennessee State.
“James is a very intelligent individual on and off the field,” Franklin Stephens, WCHS head coach, said. “He is one of those who gets it when it comes to making adjustments and recognizing what’s going on during a game. He has started every game on the offensive line since his sophomore year, which gives him a lot of experience. He also possesses very good strength, size, and quickness, a skill set that will provide him with the opportunity to be a very good offensive lineman this season. James is another great kid that we are fortunate to have in our program.”
Football has been a mainstay activity for Lucas since kindergarten, when he first played the flag variety. Tackle football took hold in third grade. He has always been a lineman, primarily on offense where he has played center, guard, and tackle.
“Tenth-grade year we went all the way to the semifinals,” Lucas said. “That was my first year starting varsity. Just learning and having fun with a bunch of guys is what I remember most. We started out good and then had an incident with Glynn Academy in the middle of the season, and then it was Effingham, when everyone was emotional and we came out flat. Then we had to play Northside (Warner Robins) in the playoffs, and they had won state the year before. They were on a streak of winning in the first round for like 10 years straight. But we got back on track and made it to the semi-finals. In the playoffs we beat Northside, Drew, Rome, then we lost to Glynn again. But the stadium was packed, and it was a really fun atmosphere.”
Winter will mark the second year in a row back on the mat for Lucas. Upon launching his wrestling comeback as a junior, he grappled his way to the state sectionals. Lucas won his first match there and lost his second one, bringing his state finals hopes down to a third and final sectionals bout. He won it in triple overtime, thus qualifying for the state finals. Subsequently he finished 16th among the heavyweights. It was a triumphant return for Lucas, who had missed wrestling as a freshman and sophomore due to high ankle sprains suffered on the gridiron.
“My ninth grade year in my first wrestling match, I stretched the tendons in my ankle and couldn’t walk on it for a couple days,” Lucas said. “Everyone said I turned white like a ghost when I did it. Against Coffee my 10th-grade year, I rolled my right ankle a couple of times. Then it was my left ankle. I did it in the semifinal against Glynn and had to wear a boot. That’s why I couldn’t wrestle.”
Hopes this year are for Lucas to recapture the magic from his eighth-grade year, when as a 240-pound wrestler, he lost only one match – to a teammate who wound up as conference champion. Chad Starling, the head football coach and athletic director at Ware County Middle School, fondly recalled watching Lucas in those days as a fledgling Gator.
“James has developed into a solid football player and more importantly an awesome young man,” Starling said. “He has always been a hard worker and dependable. His graduating class is one of my favorites because they had a great bond and really played well as a team. I’m very proud of James as well as the others in seeing them accomplish things on the field and learning as students in the classroom. There is nothing more gratifying as a coach than to see a student-athlete prosper and develop into a strong leader on and off the field. That is what it’s all about.”
Leading by example, Lucas logs community service hours at local elementary schools and as a volunteer at the Ware County Courthouse. There he assists Anna Lane, mother of Colby Lane, his army-bound best friend since sixth grade. The Lucas inner circle also includes sister Kassie, 15, a defending national champion gymnast, and brother Noah, 11, a first-degree karate black belt. Lucas also enjoys tinkering on his 1999 Chevy Silverado with his older step-brother, Dalton Strickland, and grandfather Jimmy Scurry. Whether competing or otherwise, Lucas always seems to display a unique self-awareness.
“What I love about wrestling is the one-on-one nature of it,” Lucas said. “It’s just you and another guy going at it. It’s a man’s sport, just like football. You’re trying to break another person’s will and wind up on top. It’s an individual sport, but also a team sport. What I love about football is probably the same thing because you have to win your own battles in order for the team to compete, and it’s also fun. Then when you start putting people in the dirt, that’s when it really gets fun.”
While he wears a number of hats, Lucas is quick to note the manner in which people should recall his exploits.
“I want to be remembered as someone who worked his hardest at everything he did and someone that whenever the coaches said ‘Jump,’ I said ‘How high?’”
SE-AA-10.17-Lucus
Southeast/Academic Athlete /October 2017
James Lucas
Ware County High School
Waycross, Georgia
Story by John DuPont
Photography by Jennifer Carter Johnson
Cornerstone
