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Fred T. Foard High’s Tate Beaver (center) is the WNNC Oldies 101.3 FM Coca-Cola Golden Helmet Award Player of the Year. He’s pictured with, from left, Coca-Cola’s Mark Brown and Beaver’s mother (second from left) and Josh Edmonson of WNNC and Foard head coach Derrick Minor. On the second row are Coca-Cola’s Mike Watson and Mark Carter and Beaver’s father./WNNC PHOTO
HobbsDailyReport.com
GOLDEN HELMET WINNERS 2017
Week 1: Keygan Mayfield, QB, Maiden
Week 2: Ian Walker, DE, St. Stephens
Week 3: Corey Siemer, RB, Fred T. Foard
Week 4: Derrien Phillips, QB, Hickory
Week 5: Tate Beaver, RB, Fred T. Foard
Week 6: Tylor Stinson, RB, Newton-Conover
Week 7: Shamar Baker, QB, Newton-Conover
Week 8: Shamar Baker, QB, Newton-Conover
Week 9: Bryce DeSantis, K, St. Stephens
Week 10: Ja’Tay Culliver, QB, Bandys
Week 11: Caleb McDaniel, WR, Maiden
Week 12: Ethan Howard, RB, Bandys
Player of the Year: Tate Beaver, Fred T. Foard
NEWTON – Fred T. Foard High’s Tate Beaver — a two-way star for a Tigers football team that has won nine games and is still alive in the state 2AA football playoffs — has been named the WNNC Oldies 101.3 FM Coca-Cola Golden Helmet Award Player of the Year.
Area head football coaches vote on the player of the year honor.
Beaver, a 6-foor-1, 200 pound senior who plays running back on offense and linebacker on defense, won a Golden Helmet Award this season in Week 5.
Foard (9-3, West No. 12 seed) plays a second-round 2AA game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at No. 4 Mount Pleasant (10-2).
Beaver is the fourth Fred T. Foard player to win top honors, joining running backs Brian Kimball (1982) and Quentin Owens (2008) and quarterback Matt Williams (2014).
Kimball was the Golden Helmet’s first player of the year after he helped Foard win the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s West 2A Division II title in 1982.
Division II was an added bracket for teams that did not qualify for the traditional NCHSAA football playoffs, played to an East and West champion.
Foard won 7-0 at Franklin and then beat Southwest Guilford 28-25 on the road in the title game. Those two wins and last Friday’s 16-0 victory at Maiden in the opening round of the state 2AA playoffs are the only postseason wins in the Tigers’ football history.
The Golden Helmet Award has been awarded each week for 36 years after area head football coaches nominate players for consideration during each week of a season.