One of Bobby Bass’ big questions going into last season was the quarterback position.
That’s not the case this season as Damon Mapp has established himself as the starter after splitting time with Hayden West last season.
It’s one of the things that makes Mapp a Newton County Appeal Elite 11 selection for the upcoming football season.
“He split time at quarterback last year, but he’s the man now,” said Bass, who’s entering his second season at Newton County. “He’s our guy and he has embraced that. By the end of the season last year, he had won that job through practice. Over the course of the season, he learned how to work through practice. And by the last game of the year, he had started at quarterback and embraced that role.”
Mapp doesn’t have numbers that jump off the page. The junior is 6-foot and weighs 185 pounds. He bench presses 225 pounds and power cleans 210 pounds with a 295-pound squat. On the field last year, Mapp was 25-of-87 passing for 470 yards with three TDs. He rushed for 183 yards on 53 carries and scored three rushing touchdowns.
But Bass isn’t worried about last season. He knows what he has seen in the offseason.
“He is a hard worker,” Bass said. “This whole offseason, there has been days when I had to make him go home and take a day off. He is one of those kids that you don’t have tell that these are some extra things that you could be doing because he is already doing them. And on top of that, he’s making those around him better because he’s getting them out there to work with him. He is one of our team leaders, no doubt.”
Bass said Mapp has “worked his tail” off to be a better quarterback.
“He is throwing routes with receivers, doing a lot of extra stuff,” Bass said. “He has some quarterback drills he goes through every day, a lot of footwork drills. We have this net here that he is throwing to. It’s really just working his mechanics and working his drops. One thing that he does have to work on is getting the ball out quicker. 7 on 7 kind of creates that because there is no rusher. In the game, you have people coming at you, so you have to make a read and get the ball out quick. That’s one of the things that he has to work on and he knows that because we talk about it all the time.”
Mapp has also been making the camp circuit this summer, going to Millsaps already and is planning on going to camps at Georgia Tech and Southern Miss.
“Right now, I’m just working every day, just trying to be consistent more and trying to do separate things to make be better,” Mapp said. “I know I can get better at it. I’ve been working on my arm strength and trying to be more consistent. I need to work on not being so hard on myself and do better the next play. Last year when I would make a mistake, I am very hard on myself. If I make a mistake, I’m very hard on myself. Sometimes it affects the teams and I know I have to work on that. I think I have gotten better at that.”
Bass thinks Mapp will only get better now that he’s the full-time starter.
“He has a strong arm,” Bass said. "I don’t know if I will get any taller, but his shoulders haven’t filled out yet. I think he is still learning how to play the game. He’s continually getting better. I think once he understands defenses and coverages, he will just get better by the game. I think he will make a huge progression this year as to what defenses are giving him. He can throw the deep out, I don’t know if he can throw it from the other hash, but he has the arm strength to throw the deep out.”
Bass said Mapp is just now getting a hip injury he suffered his freshman year that has limited him.
“He is just now, believe it or not, he is just now getting over his hip,” Bass said. “He had a full dislocation of his hip as a ninth grader and is just now getting over that. They had to do surgery to get it back in. That took a while. He is just now getting back his strength and range of mobility. He has gotten his squat over 300. He has worked hard to get there. He’s not a blazer, he’s a 4.9 guy. He’s probably a pro-style quarterback for us. I think, depending on how much he progresses, he could play somewhere at the next level.”
Mapp does understand what his role on the team is.
“I think my role is to be the quarterback and try to be the leader of this team,” Mapp said. “That’s just something I have accepted about being the quarterback. I’ve always wanted to be the quarterback and I have worked on myself to be a better leader.”
Mapp said when he’s not playing football, he likes to be outside and like hunting and fishing. Last year, Mapp said he killed five deer and even tore up his four-wheeler getting one of them out of the woods. In the classroom, Mapp said he concentrated more on academics last year and made all As and Bs but has a goal this year of making all As.
ELITE 11
This is the third part of an 11-part series highlighting the top football players in the Newton County Appeal coverage area for the upcoming season. Local coaches nominated the players, while the Elite 11 preseason football team is selected solely by Newton County Appeal sports editor Robbie Robertson. The players are being revealed one at a time, in no particular order.
