Snow’s injury didn’t sideline his growth in 2020
Some of life’s best lessons can be learned from negative experiences.
That’s what happened to Newton’s Tyreke Snow last year.
Snow opened the season with a huge win over Class 4A Leake Central but the talented sophomore injured his shoulder and was unable to throw the football for the rest of the season. That left Snow as mostly a defensive player.
While coach Zach Grady missed Snow on offense, it wasn’t a total waste for Snow.
“I think last year helped him a lot,” Grady said. “When you are able to learn the ins and outs of the defensive side, it helps you as a quarterback. I think he has a better understanding of defense and what they are trying to do to the offense. And I think that’s a big thing for him.”
Grady said the injury also served another purpose for the 6-foot-1, 180 pounder who runs 4.5 in the 40-yard dash.
“I think it really humbled him a lot and made him into a better player,” Grady said. “When everybody tells you how good you are, after a while you start to believe it. But when you get injured, it can really humble you and that happened to him at an early age. I think it was a tremendous help to him and will only make him better this year.”
Even though he wasn’t 100 percent, Snow showed vast improvements on the defense side of the football.
“He has tremendous range on the defensive side and he is a willing tackler,” Grady said. “He is the quarterback of the whole defense. He gets the other guys lined up and you can tell he has a high football IQ. He has the it factor that it takes to be the guy on that side of the football. I thought he played well and challenged every pass. He made all the plays that you want him to play. He was that guy for us on defense last year.”
Snow said his should is 100 percent healed from last year and didn’t require surgery.
“I was trying to stiff arm a guy and hurt my shoulder in that first game,” Snow said. “I played the rest of the game, but it hurt really bad the next day. So I just played defense the rest of the year and tried to perfect that. I was expecting to play both sides but after I got hurt, I just played defense and tried to do what I could do for the offense. But the shoulder is a lot better now.”
Grady said Snow has shown no effects of the injury so far and has looked really sharp in 7-on-7 this summer.
“We went to Jackson and he put on a clinic in 7-on-7 against Provine, Callaway and Wingfield,” Grady said. “We won the day and it wasn’t even close. He went out there and showed that he was the best athlete on the field. Those schools might not win a lot of games but they always have SEC-caliber athletes but Tyreke was the best athlete on the field.
Grady said it’s hard to say where Snow will play at in college or at what level. Snow’s is the youngest of four kids and brother Dayreke and Sirvarious are both seniors at Delta State this season.
“When it’s all said and done, I think he’s an SEC player,” Grady said. “I don’t really know whether it’s offense or defense. It’s hard to say right now. He has a live arm and is really coming on. I think he has one of the better arms in the state. But I think he will land in the SEC once it’s all said and done. Whether it’s offense or defense, I don’t know. But I know he will get a shot.”
Part of Grady’s confidence in Snow’s next-level ability comes from that family structure.
“He has tremendous parents,” Grady said. “His older brother have played and have laid out that blue print for him. He has that family structure and support to be successful. He lives in a household that understands what it takes to play college football. They are all three good guys and Tyreke is no different.”
Aside from summer workouts and basketball, Snow is also keeping busy with camps at LSU, Jackson State, Florida and Vanderbilt. And while he plays other sports, Snow is quick to say that football is his favorite sports. As for the next level, Snow said he thinks his future might lie on defense.
“I think I have more knowledge on defense,” Snow said. “Football runs in my family. I just love it. I think I have the knowledge of the game and it’s just part of me now.”
