Editor’s note: This is a regular feature profiling senior athletes at Bryant High School.
NAME: Dillon Winfrey
PARENTS: Dena Cummins and Greg Cummins
SIBLINGS: I have five brothers. Davis, Daniel, David, Darrell and D.J. Ages are 4, 6, 8, 20 and 22.
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: Science
FAVORITE SPARE TIME ACTIVITY: Sports.
FAVORITE FOOD: I like everything. I’ll say steak.
FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST OR GROUP: Li’l Wayne.
FAVORITE MOVIE: Project X[more]
FAVORITE TV SHOW: Sportscenter
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A KID? A football.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL? To attend college at UCA and major in sports medicine with a minor in physical therapy and, if God permits, go to the NFL. If not, start my life.
OTHER THAN YOUR PARENTS, WHO’S HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE? HOW? Coach (Paul) Calley, because he’s told me, in more ways than one how to be a man and life is not fair and you get what you put in.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT TRACK? The adrenaline and nervousness — like everything in one — right before you’re about to run then once the gun shoots, it just disappears like that.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT FOOTBALL? The game itself, practices, games, Friday nights, the band, everything, the brotherhood.
TRACK EVENTS? The 4×100, the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the 4×400.
WHAT APPROACH DO YOU TAKE TO YOUR EVENTS? The 4×400 is the only thing where I come out hard on the first curve. I maintain my speed but I’m in a more relaxed state until the last straightaway, then I give it whatever I have.
FOOTBALL POSITIONS: Cornerback, wide receiver, kick returner.
WHAT ARE YOUR PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AT THOSE POSITIONS? At receiver, my responsibilities were to get open, lead the team. And, at corner, it was to do my job. So, if I had cover-two, come up and support the run. Just do my job. On defense, anybody can slip up and it can be a touchdown so I just had to do my job. (Returning kicks), it was to get good field position every time, take it to the house.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE TRACK SEASON SO FAR? I’ve only run in two outdoor meets. I got hurt coming out of indoor. I was out for five weeks. I pulled my hamstring. If I can get past conference, I think I’ll be back to where I was but I don’t know. I was pretty fast but I’m just hanging in now.
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FOOTBALL SEASON LAST FALL? I thought we did what we were capable of and we shocked a lot of people. In the polls and stuff, we were picked to be last and to be sorry. And to prove everybody wrong, it felt good. It felt like we accomplished something even though we could get out after the first round (of the playoffs) or beat Northside which had never been done. I still feel like we did a good job.
WHAT’S BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT TO THE TRACK SEASON SO FAR? The 4×400 at the State Indoor meet, when we ran 3:30 or 3:40, 3-something and we won our meet. We won our heat. That was pretty exciting.
WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE FOOTBALL SEASON? Conway, the Conway game is always the highlight of the year.
WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE FOR THE TEAM TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT THE CONFERENCE MEET? We’ve got to put points up. I think we can enter three in an event. If everybody puts points up in each event, we’ll be all right. Even if it’s just one or two. We go into meets every week not putting up points, just going in and running. Our job is to put some points up, to place. If we can get everybody in the top eight — we’ve been training hard. We need to put some points on the board.
TALK ABOUT YOUR EVENTS NOW; WHAT DO THINK IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET? WHAT ARE YOU MOST CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY TO DO? My start. I start off pretty quick. I can never hold it every time. Like in the 200-meter dash, some of the fastest guys in the state like Anthony Blakley, Zachary Riley and some of those, I always beat them out of the curve but I can never hold it. My start’s pretty good.
WHAT DO YOU WORK HARDEST IN PRACTICE TO IMPROVE ON? My finish, try to get some top-end speed.
AT FOOTBALL, WHAT WAS YOUR STRENGTH? My first step and my ability to see stuff before it actually happens and know where to be. I know where the tackle’s going to be made. If they’re running a sweep, I can tell by the linemen because I watch a lot of film, there’s going to be a sweep right here. I always knew where to be at.
WHAT WILL YOU BE WORKING HARDEST TO IMPROVE ON WHEN YOU GET TO UCA? I’m going to need to cover more because they’re going to try to pick on me. I’m small so they’re going to call passing plays all the time, one-on-one. So I’m going to have to learn how to lock some people down.
WHEN YOU’RE THROUGH BEING INVOLVED IN SPORTS AT BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL LOOK BACK AND REMEMBER MOST FONDLY ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE? The brotherhood. I never got into it with anybody. Just the relationships, like I can call some football guys even after the season’s over. The brotherhood was pretty tight.
