Wicksburg head football coach Josh Cox marvels at Aiden Rice’s ability to make a difficult catch on a bad pass. He also raves about his work ethic and blocking ability.
Rice, a senior tight end for the Panthers, will take those attributes among others to the college level after signing to play football for LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga., on Friday afternoon at the Wicksburg High School Media Center.
“I am glad I get to play more football and go to school for it,” Rice said to the Dothan Eagle shortly after the ceremony.
The 6-foot-1 Rice delivered clutch plays for Wicksburg last year, earning a team-high six touchdown catches among his 21 receptions for 247 yards. In his junior year, he caught 14 passes for 332 yards (23.7 yards per catch) with two TDs.
“He is one of the hardest working kids we’ve ever had,” Cox said. “He was at practice every day and did everything you asked. He made some amazing catches throughout the year. Even in the playoffs against Reeltown, he made a catch that I don’t know how he made it. I thought it was going to hit the ground and he went and got it. He is also really good at blocking.”
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Rice chose LaGrange over Huntingdon College of Montgomery, Knox College (Ill.) and the University of Northwestern in St. Paul’s Minn. All four schools are Division-III programs.
“I love the town,” Rice said of LaGrange. “I love the coaches there. They made feel wanted. I love the intensity as I have gone to a few practices. I love the intensity I saw up there. All that combined made me want to go there over the other schools.”
Though he had offers from two northern schools, Rice indicated he wanted to stay closer to home. LaGrange College is roughly three hours from Wicksburg.
While at Wicksburg, Rice was utilized on the offensive line as a tight end, but also moved outside to wide receiver. He also played some defense as an outside linebacker and defensive end, recording 32 tackles in 10 games this past year.
He is expected to just play on offense for LaGrange coaches.
“They expect me to come in and have an immediate impact and be a receiving threat and just overall help the offense,” Rice said. “They feel I am versatile and can split out, block, catch passes, almost like a Swiss Army Knife.”
Cox said it’s his understanding that the Panther senior will have an early opportunity at playing time at LaGrange.
“LaGrange is wanting him as a tight end,” Cox said. “I don’t think they had a tight end on roster (this past year), and they want him to fill that role.”
A member of the Panther basketball team, Rice said he has put on some weight in the last six weeks.
“Since basketball, I have put on about 10-15 pounds. I am above 220, close to 230 now,” Rice said.
His goal is to keep adding more muscle to his body before the start of the upcoming season.
“I am just focused on putting on weight that I can use and not putting on fat, but consistent weight that won’t affect me physically and allow me to be bigger and stronger,” Rice said.
Rice feels he has several attributes in playing the tight end position.
“I feel I can run routes,” Rice said. “I feel I have great hands (to catch passes) and I can block. I can do pretty much anything you want from a tight end.”
Occasionally, that means making those difficult passes such as he did against Reeltown when a high pass was thrown over him, but he still managed to make a catch on it.
“I don’t really know either,” Rice said of how he caught the pass. “I just threw my hand up there and I caught the ball.
“I just jumped up the air, put my hand up and it stuck.”
In going from Wicksburg to LaGrange, Rice won’t have to change his team nickname, though his color wardrobe will feature different colors. The LaGrange College Panthers have black, white, red and silver colors instead of Wicksburg’s black and vegas gold.