Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. is pleased to present this week’s “Gridiron Gamer of the Week” award to Zack Markham of Winfield High School.

The Winfield High School Generals are under the leadership of a new coach this year.  Head Coach Willie Wilson has come on from the Cabel Midland program to try his hand at the head coaching position. 

Adopting a new system and getting used to a new coach is usually hard for most teams, but Winfield has made the most of it this year in going to a 3-4 record coming into this week’s game against cross county rival Poca.  The Dots were also bringing in a 3-4 record, and both teams were looking to win this game to help their playoff chances. 

As expected the game came down to the wire.  With four seconds left to go in the game Winfield called time out and sent out their much heralded kicker Zack Markham.  Earlier in the game Zack had missed field goals from 38 yards and 51 yards.  Zack says, “I had good tries on those two attempts, but I knew this was the game winner, and I was much more nervous.”  As Zack lined up to kick, Poca’s head coach Bob Lemley did the only thing he could, he called time out.  Most people see a kicker iced at the professional and collegiate levels, but rarely is a time out used to ice a kicker in high school.  Lemley not only knew to do it once, he also used his second time out shortly thereafter.  With all the fans from Winfield nervous and angry at the repeated icing of their kicker, Markham was unaffected.  When the whistle blew, Markham booted his game winning kick of 21-yards dead center through the uprights to give Winfield a 24-21 win over the Poca Dots.  Markham says, “When they decided to ice me, I couldn’t blame them.  It is the only thing you can do in that situation.  It kind of gets to you a little bit, but I also knew that I had to do what I had to do, and I stepped up and did my best.”

Zack has been great all year long connecting on 6-of-8 field goal tries and 13-of-13 extra points. 

Markham, also a full-time soccer player for the Generals, hopes to continue his kicking duties at the collegiate level next year.  When asked about the teams hopes for the playoffs, Markham says, “If we can win our next two games and finish fourth, I think we have a real good chance of getting in the playoffs this year.” 

Look for Zack and other local area high school athletes to be named next week’s Gridiron Gamer of the Week sponsored by Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc.