East Lee County DL Eric Thomas using size to his advantage

When you’re looking at the East Lee County defensive huddle, it’s impossible to miss No. 99 defensive lineman Eric Thomas.

“I’m 6’5″ 310,” Thomas said.

Thomas, who’s a junior, has always been the tallest kid in school. Right now, he rocks a size 20 shoe! He knows what his size brings.

“When you’re tall, you cant you always got to be nice to everybody,” Thomas explained. “You can’t look like a mean person. So you can’t treat other people how somebody else is because you’re bigger. So they’re going to think automatically oh watch out for this person.”

“He’s one of those guys that wouldn’t hurt a fly,” East Lee County head coach Herbans Paul said. “That’s how nice he is. But he gets on the field, thank God those guys aren’t flies.”

On the field, Thomas looks to dominate and instill fear in his opponents. That happens the second he walks off the bus.

“At that moment you can see the fear on the other guys eyes,” Paul said. “And they’re just like God like geez where did they get the big giant from?”

“I like when people scared of me like,” Thomas said. “I want to get in their mind before the game even start.”

Thomas is still growing physically and his game. He’s taking his junior year to become more consistent at dominating the line of scrimmage.

“He’s not really relying on that switch,” Paul said. “He’s just using it the entire time. Like the switch is always on pretty much is what I’m seeing.”

“It’s been a season I pictured,” Thomas said. “Like I pictured that everything I’m doing right now was going to happen already.”