Player Spotlight/Coastal/August 2013
Milan Richard
Calvary Day School
Savannah, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
One of the nation’s top tight ends ready for senior season at Calvary DayFor Milan Richard, the 6’3”, 235-pound tight end/defensive end for the Calvary Day Cavaliers, it’s been a hectic offseason. As one of the most sought-after football players in the country, the scrutiny surrounding Richard has been intense.
According to ESPN, Richard is a four-star recruit and is rated as the number-two tight end in the nation, the 16th best football player in Georgia regardless of position, and is ranked number 195 in ESPN’s Top 300. What makes Richard so good? He’s a fast, intelligent, athletic player with the size of a defensive end/outside linebacker, speed of a back, and hands of a wide receiver. He can play just about anywhere on the field but prefers tight end. Richard runs crisp, sharp routes and has the size to overpower most defensive backs. If he gets the ball in his hands and can get in front of a defensive back, he isn’t going to get caught. It doesn’t hurt that his parents were All-Americans on the University of Georgia track team and his uncle is Herschel Walker, one of the greatest college football players of all time.Richard’s athleticism, coupled with his pedigree, translates into the kind of attention usually reserved for superstars. Though a high school senior, Richard handles the media very well.
He is a well spoken, thoughtful, and mature young man who seems to take everything in stride. He knows he can’t get away from questions and comments about his uncle. He will answer whatever you ask but it doesn’t take long to get the feeling that Richard wants to forge his own legacy, to make a name for himself through his own sweat and tears. So far, he’s done that very thing – and he’s done it 120 miles from Wrightsville and 225 miles from Athens.Richard has always lived in Savannah. He grew up there with his mother, Veronica, (Walker’s sister) and his father, Bill. He started playing football in full pads at six years old. He continued playing football throughout his youth in the various leagues until he was able to suit up for his school team. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, Richard realized he had a future playing football. “I was going to camps and I was competing very favorably against kids who already had scholarship offers. I knew then that I had a good chance to have a future in football,” he says.The turning point in his career came as a sophomore against Metter. His father recalls the play very well. Richard caught a pass he turned into a long touchdown. After he caught the ball, he took off for the end zone with a defensive back giving chase. Big tight ends aren’t supposed to outrun speedy DBs but that’s exactly what happened. 
Richard separated himself from the would-be tackler and won the footrace to the end zone. “That let everyone know that he was a weapon that we might need to use more often. That play was a defining moment in Milan’s career,” says Richard’s father.As Richard developed into an elite football player, the question was not if he would play college football but where. The Bulldog nation hoped against hope that he would choose Georgia. After all, he had connections to Georgia throughout his family. While he was interested in becoming a Bulldog, it never was a given that he would choose the Bulldogs. His family never pressured him but allowed him to make the best decision for his future. In the end, Richard chose Clemson. Georgia wasn’t even one of his top four schools.
The reason he decided not to go to Georgia was simple, and it’s a story Richard has told many times (probably a lot more than he would like to!) – the Bulldogs were only looking to sign one tight end from the Class of 2014. Jeb Blazevich, another of the country’s top tight ends and a good friend of Richard’s, committed to Georgia in April. Once Blazevich announced he would be a Bulldog, Richard had to look elsewhere. That “elsewhere” ended up being Clemson. For Richard, the decision to choose Clemson wasn’t that difficult. He enjoyed his visits to campus and felt a strong connection to the coaching staff. Another big selling point was Clemson’s offense – it is very similar to the spread look, four wide receiver set that Calvary Day runs. Richard would have little trouble adapting to the Tigers offense once he learned their terminology, and he would also have the opportunity to make some plays. Not wanting to lose his potential spot with Clemson, he decided to commit in May. “I wanted to make sure I kept my spot,” he says.As for what Richard would like to do beyond high school, he plans to major in communications and pick up a minor in business at Clemson. He thinks about a career in the NFL following college but he isn’t putting all his eggs into that proverbial basket. “Yeah, it’s an option I’d like to keep open. But I know I have to get my degree. NFL stands for ‘not for long’ if you don’t have an education,” states Richard.
Milan Richard is also a very good basketball player at Calvary Day. A forward/center, he was a part of a Cavaliers team that advanced to the Elite Eight last year before losing to eventual state champion Green Forest. “I grew up playing basketball. It’s something I’ve always done, and I enjoy moving around the court,” he says. This year, he would like his team to go beyond the Elite Eight and maybe even contend for a state championship. “We have the team to do it. We just need to put in the work to be the best.”
