Head Coach Frank Hepler of West Forsyth High School in Cumming, Ga. announced today that Senior Taylor Roland his 6'6" 295lb Left OT has been selected to the Rotary Allstar Game @ Alpharetta High School December 19th at 1:30 pm.
Top Senior Allstar Players from across North Georgia will play to benifit the Rotarys mission of service in the community. This is a prestegious charity and selction of Players has ben finalized by Head Coach Jared Zito of Nort Forsyth High School in Cumming Ga.
Many DI BCS, DIAA FBS, and top DII programs will be represented by recruiters at the Rotary Allstar Game. The game will highlight seniors across the GA north Region in a college type offensive and defensive scheme.
Taylor has come up with film of a recent game against Flowery Branch Ga. Flowery Branch won the game 54-51 in a top offensive performance.
Taylor's team with a Freshman QB struggled at times this year but the running game behind Ben Emert 27 TDs and 1500 yards and Taylor 68 pancakes nearly unstoppable.
Flowery Branch recently with a 7-2 record won its first game in the GHSA playoffs 21-14 with a great defensive performance against a top 10 state ranked team.
Taylor has two offers so far and is scheduled to play in a regional All-star Game in mid December.
As you are aware Taylor played 10 games this fall with a torn Meniscus in his left knee. Surgery is scheduled after the all-star game.
The knee never needed any draining and is repairable. The tear is on the front outside of the left knee and is near blood flow. A 100% recovery is expected and the Atlanta Falcons Knee specialist will perform the surgery.
With that said it is obvious that the left knee hindered his mobility, leg drive and balance on some plays. Taylor is working with a personal trainer now to lose weight and replace it with strength and speed. Currently he benches 360 and had been squatting in the mid 400s prior to the injury.
Remember he is only 17 and will turn 18 August 6 2010.
We are looking for serious offers as Taylor is beginning to apply for schools and suplemental financial aid by the end of this year. It would be great to have his final decision by signing day February 1st 2010.
Craig A. Roland craig_roland@hotmail.com 770-616-3273
Dont miss Tommorrows playoff match up betwen West Forsyth and Flowery Branch. Its all about who makes it the the State playooffs. 2 Division I BCS recruits Ben Emert from West and Connor Shaw at FBHS are featured.
Taylor Roland a 6'5" 265 lb OT leads Emert and the WEST ground attack that ran for 6 rushing TDs and 376 yard last week. Roland has been offered at 2 DII schools and is working hard in his second full season as a starter to garner more attention from Mid DI and DIAA programs. So far he has matched up against Tennessee recruit at linebacker from Gainesville, Adairsvilles Line recruit for GA Tech and last years Defensive Player of the year Izan Cross a Ga Tech freshman. @ 17 this past August Taylor is getting stronger and recovering from a knee problem early in August. He really is a JR with so much upside in his senior year.
OAKWOOD — West Forsyth turned the horses loose and galloped behind a dominent offensive line performence for 376 yards on the ground en route to a 41-0 victory Friday at Johnson.
Senior running back Ben Emert led the charge, finishing with 275 rushing yards and five touchdowns on a mere 14 carries.
Emert credits his teammate fellow Senior Taylor Roland a 6'5" 285lb Left Offensive Tackle for paving the way for his first 200 yards. Emert said " I followed Taylor and as the holes opened I was untouched."
Wolverines Coach Frank Hepler echoed Emert. " Ben is an outstanding DI Fullback prospect. You just dont see 5 touchdowns in the interior line with out a top notch lead blocker. Taylor Roland cleaned house for sure. Taylor needs to go with Ben to what ever program Ben decides on."
The Wolverines (4-3 overall, 2-1 Region 7B-AAA) scored on each of their first three possessions and piled up 205 rushing yards in the first two quarters alone.
“We played hard tonight,” Coach Hepler said. “I thought we came out and executed on offense real well.”
The Wolverines’ defense also came to play, quickly forcing the Knights (2-6, 1-2) to punt on their first two possessions and holding them to 93 total yards and four first downs in the first half.
“We were worried about Johnson’s ability to move the ball on offense, but I thought we did an excellent job on defense tonight,” Hepler said.
By the time the Knights finally started to gain momentum on offense, they were trailing by 14 points.
The backbreaker for the Knights was a roughing-the-punter penalty that gave West a first down.
After a bad snap had forced the Wolverines to punt, a Johnson defender rushed in for the block but wasn’t able to get his hands on the ball and ran into the kicker.
Johnson would have had the ball at the West 35-yard line, but the Wolverines took advantage of the miscue and drove downfield.
Emert broke through the line, juked a defender and rumbled into the end zone to put West ahead 20-0 at the half.
Emert struck again on just the second play from scrimmage in the second half, finding a crease that allowed him to break loose for a 76-yard run to paydirt down the left sideline. He tacked on two more scores in the quarter to extend the West lead to 41-0.
The anemic Johnson offense was able to move downfield on its last possession of the first half, threatening to score at the West 23, but a couple of untimely penalties ended the opportunity. The Knights threatened again late in the third quarter against the stingy West defense before turning the ball over on downs inside the Wolverines 17.
“We’ll regroup and go after East Hall next week,” Knights coach Paul Friel said.
West looks to carry the momentum from the victory into Friday’s crucial showdown with Flowery Branch.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Hepler said.
“They are an excellent team. ... We’ll have our hands full with [quarterback] Connor Shaw and the rest of the Falcons’ team.”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday WHERE: Gainesville, City Park RADIO: 1240 AM ESPN Radio TV: CSS-TV, Charter channel 37 WEST FORSYTH: (3-2, 1-0 Region 7B-AAA) Defeated East Hall 41-6 last week. GAINESVILLE: (5-0, 1-0 Region 7B-AAA) Defeated West Hall 56-13 last week. The Red Elephants are ranked No. 1 in Class AAA in both the Associated Press and Ga.Prepcountry.com coaches polls. LAST MEETING: Gainesville won 35-16 on Oct. 3, 2008. The Red Elephants lead the series 1-0.
NOTABLE: As if Gainesville wasn’t already used to hype and the media spotlight, this week brings an added dimension, as the No. 1-ranked Red Elephants’ game against West Forsyth will be broadcast live across the Southeast on CSS-TV. Gainesville’s coaches could care less – and they believe their players feel the same. “They just focus on who they’re playing and who the next game is.” Red Elephants coach Bruce Miller said. And they know that next game won’t be easy, facing a West Forsyth team that can control the ball for minutes at a time but also gash defenses with the pass when they crowd the line of scrimmage. The Wolverines feature fullback Ben Emert and an imposing offensive line, which gave the Red Elephants trouble at times in the two teams’ only meeting last year. Yet the difference last season -- and what could prove the difference all season for Gainesville – was big offensive plays. Red Elephants quarterback Blake Sims torched the West Forsyth defense on several big plays, including an 85-yard touchdown run to go along with 147 yards rushing and 290 yards total. The Wolverines went 8-2 last season but stumbled early this campaign, falling to solid North Forsyth and Creekview squads. After a successful but occasionally sloppy start, the Red Elephants have begun to roll in their last two games, rolling up 111 points while cutting down on turnovers and penalties
" Our Big guys Taylor Roland and Jeff Sayer on the Oline pounded Pickens 2 way starters on a 15 play start of the 2nd half drive to eat up 6 mins on the clock. It pretty much was over after that." Coach Hrpler WFHS Forsyth County News 9/13/2009
“A lot of credit has to go to the offensive line,” Hepler said. “We have a couple of young guys in there and they performed very well, giving our guys a chance to gain yards.” 9/4/2009 Forsyth County News
