Valedictorian Brought Strong Leadership From Baseball Background
Clinch County senior Patrick Kimple plays center field for the Panthers baseball team. He’s been a solid outfielder with a .985 fielding percentage, committing just one error in 41 games. Like most center fielders, Kimple is pretty fast, tracking down balls on defense and showing good speed on the base paths. Panthers head football coach Don Tison regularly attended Clinch County baseball games and was familiar with Kimple prior to the 2022-23 school year.
“I have actually known Patrick for a pretty good while,” said Tison, who knew one of Kimple’s family members and had spent considerable time around the Clinch senior.
Tison said every time he ran into Kimple, he would ask him about coming out to play football.
“I had asked Patrick for years about playing football, but he always wanted to just stick with baseball,” Tison said.
What was it that the Clinch County football coach saw in Kimple that made him so persistent?
“I just saw his competitiveness and leadership when he was on the baseball field,” Tison said. “I knew that even if he didn’t develop into a great football player, his leadership would really add a lot to our team on the field, in the huddle, and especially in the locker room.”
Following the 2021 season, with Tison still nudging Kimple, the rising senior and class valedictorian decided to give it a shot. He told Coach Tison he was ready to play football.
“I knew he really wanted to try to play,” said Tison.
While Tison was excited to finally have Kimple join the Panthers football team, there was a slight problem: Kimple had never played football. He would be suiting up alongside teammates who had been playing the sport their entire lives, putting him at a disadvantage – or so it would seem, right?
According to Tison, Kimple faced a steep learning curve at first.
“Patrick came in and attended every single summer workout and looked pretty comfortable to start with,” Tison recalled. “But when it was time to put the pads on and learn how to do everything with assignments and things like that, I wasn’t sure if he would be able to catch up with the game. Patrick had missed so many years, I didn’t know if he would be able to make it all up in less than a year.”
But he did. And then some.
“Patrick began to really blossom,” Tison said. “He turned into a really good football player, starting on offense as a running back for us, and he played a good bit on defense, also.”
Just as Kimple was getting comfortable learning the game, he endured a setback, a dislocated thumb that forced him to play with a brace on his hand – not an ideal situation for a running back trying to take handoffs or hang on to the football.
“It was amazing that he was able to play with that thing,” Tison said.
For Patrick Kimple, he just accepted the problem and learned how to deal with it. Piece of cake for this fast learner.
