Player of the Week: Running back Ty Collins

A Collier County running back put on a historic show in week 11, enough to earn him our WINK News Player of the Week honor.

Lely High School‘s Ty Collins tied the school’s single-game scoring record, which a fellow Trojan had set earlier this season.

Wink News sports reporter Sylvie Sparks caught up with the Trojans and shared the strength of their offense.

One, two, three, a hat trick in the first half, four, five, six, seven and four scores in the second put Collins in Lely’s history books.

The running back’s seven-touchdown performance against South Fort Myers tied Lely’s single-game scoring record.

“The grind don’t stop; that’s all I know. We gotta keep pushing,” Collins said.

Collins’ teammate Nino Joseph set the record at seven scores in Lely’s week six victory over Barron Collier.

Joseph had more than 1,600 yards in seven games before he was sidelined by injury, giving Collins the chance to step up in the backfield.

“I’m just thinking, run straight. Don’t even juke. Just run straight. Try to break a tackle and then juke if you need to juke, but just run straight.”

Collins had 531 all-purpose yards in Friday’s 52 to 38 win.

Both backs rushed for more than 420 yards in their record-setting games.

Lely’s offensive line coach, Frank Trapfenbaum, told us this group is one of the best he has ever coached.

“Every day, we come to work ready to go. We’re young up front as well. I think we’ve started earlier in the year; three sophomores, Deuce Thornton, came back in week four, and our offense has literally taken off since then,” Trapfenbaum said.

The Trojans’ ground game is set to continue reaching new heights in the games and years to come.

They aren’t going anywhere. They’re not in their senior year. Nino is only a sophomore, and Ty is a junior. That means next year, those two backs and this strong o-line will certainly be a force to be reckoned with here in Lely, but they aren’t done trying to make history this season; the Trojans could win the school’s first individual district title in ten years with a win over Aubrey Rogers this week.

Thursday night, WINK will bring you the highlights from week 12. Several Southwest Florida squads are in action to make up for missing a week because of Hurricane Milton.