ARP, Texas — When you've racked up over 1,400 rushing yards and about 20 touchdowns in the season, it becomes business as usual for Arp junior Josh Smith.
He's gotten used to the success, which is amazing because coming into this year, he had no high school experience playing on offense.
"He's a tough sucker ya know, plays both sides of the football he's a running back and inside linebacker and he's banging every play. He's a tough kid," said Arp Head Coach Wes Schminkey.
Linebacker was always Smith's main focus. He was only called on to carry the ball because of some team personnel changes and injuries.
"The past two years I never played any offense really. And then this year one of our running backs moved so I had to step up, and then Casen got hurt so I had to step up and play both sides of the ball there almost every snap," Smith said.
When he says almost every snap, he means it. For instance, in Arp's 22-13 win over West Rusk, the Tigers ran 45 plays on offense, 27 of which, well more than half, were handoffs to Smith.
"He's a tough kid, he's a competitor, he wants to win. He's gonna play as hard as he can every snap, just like we ask all the kids to do," Schminkey said.
Smith leads the team in total yards, yards per game, touchdowns, tackles per game, fumble recoveries. Any given Friday night Smith is making winning plays for his Tigers, which has put them in a position to "host" their first playoff game.
"It was a big win for us. We did really need it so we could get a higher seed. It felt really good getting those two touchdowns and beating West Rusk cause we hadn't beat them in forever," Smith said.
It'll be Arp and Woodville matched up on Friday night at Rusk’s Eagle Stadium, as the Tigers look to make a run to state.
"As long as you believe in the Lord, then anything's possible with him, and you just come out here and put in the work and everything's gonna be OK," Smith said.
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