Re-Arming:  Alton Voss, Mr. Everything

[Brad]

Mr. Everything looks to leave legacy

He's just about done it all for Gulf High football. Except get his team into the playoffs. That would be his crowning glory.

By JOHN C. COTEY, Times Staff Writer

Published October 12, 2006

There have been embarrassingly lopsided losses, a record-setting losing streak and enough futility to fill Gulf High School's Des Little Stadium.

To find highlights, you'd need a time machine. To find a silver lining, you'd need to rappel down the deepest mine shaft.

But to find hope, you only need to show up tonight at 7:30 for the football game between Gulf and Pasco High School.

Since 1963, when the Florida High School Athletic Association started the state football playoffs, Pasco has been a participant 10 times.

Gulf: zero.

In fact, the Bucs are the only team in Pasco County to have never made the postseason, a distinction it hopes to lose this season.

There is hope in New Port Richey, real hope, because the Bucs are good. They have a group of talented seniors, aggressive defenders, fast wide receivers and running backs and a quarterback ready to lead them to the promised land.

To measure that quarterback's importance to the Gulf football team, one needs to consider just one thing:

Everything.

Alton Voss is a strong-armed quarterback able to light up scoreboards.

He is a fast and bruising runner with one of the nastiest stiff arms in the county.

He is a punishing defender who can play everywhere, picking off passes and sacking quarterbacks and stuffing runs and making the other team hurt with his vicious hits.

He is a punter, able to boom his team out of trouble with one swing of his strong right leg.

"And there is no doubt in my mind if we put him on the offensive line he'd be all-conference, no doubt in my mind at all," said Gulf coach Jay Fulmer. "The guy can play anywhere he wants to play, and be good at it."

But can he be great?

For all his accomplishments on the field, including more than 1,000 yards rushing and passing last year, which earned him a Division I-A scholarship to the University of South Florida, Voss' reputation in Pasco County will likely be based on the result of tonight's game.

"Every good team, they always ask who the quarterback was," said the 18-year-old Voss. "If we win the game and go on to make the playoffs and make history, that will definitely help me. Going to the playoffs will define me as a better quarterback."

"To him, the playoffs mean everything," said teammate Anthony Jackson. "I'd hate to see him go out without them."

While Fulmer thinks it is unfair to place the burden of unmet expectations on his quarterback's shoulders, he understands how it works. Football is a game where the signal callers get too much blame, too much credit.

But the pressure is nothing new for Voss. He committed to USF before the season started, and fans expected him to eclipse last season's records. They expected 300 yards a game, a couple of dozen touchdown passes, and lots of fireworks.

Most of all, they expected to be buying playoff tickets in November.

Voss' numbers, though, have been down, and that led to a number of questions and concerns that are defiantly answered by his coach:

"The thing about Alton is you can't judge him statistically as a football player because he does so many things," Fulmer said. "Just because he hasn't thrown for 3,000 yards doesn't mean he had a down year. And we don't need to rely on him as much as we did last year."

This year, 10 different Gulf players have scored, and 10 different players have caught passes. Nine different players have run the ball.

In fact, Voss may be having a better year on defense (25 tackles, two sacks, two interceptions) than on offense (38-for-83, 740 yards and nine touchdowns).

But those are just numbers. Even the most passionate football observers can't tell you how many yards Drew Weatherford threw for at Land O'Lakes, or how many touchdown passes Issac Johnson tossed for Pasco in 1992.

What they can tell you is Weatherford was a playoff stud, and Johnson led the Pirates to the county's only state title.

At Gulf, they'll just settle for getting an invitation to the party.

"The thing about legacies is they grow as the years go by," said Fulmer, who thinks Voss will go down as one of the best ever regardless of tonight's outcome.

"Whether he throws for 1,000 yards or not, 10 years from now they'll be talking about how he threw for 3,000. But to be the first quarterback that led a team to the playoffs. Well, the kids growing up around here, they're going to see it, know it, and remember Alton."

John C. Cotey can be reached at 727-869-6261 or cotey@sptimes.com.

Story Link

[Joe]

Voss has had a rough season, however they are still in place to win their District. Best of luck to him.

[___ Eats It]

[E.T.]

Good luck the rest of the season and looking forward to him signing with us.

Go BULLS !!!

[Bull Matrix]

I think this rough season will make him stronger for the future. Grothe basically has to do it all right now on offense too, so I see the similarities in both QBs.

[smazza]

voss will not be comimg to usf to sit for 3 years

he is better of going to ftu/ou/oc where he has a chance to start all 4 years

[Apis Bull]

voss will not be comimg to usf to sit for 3 years

he is better of going to ftu/ou/oc where he has a chance to start all 4 years

smazza, if you cared at all about USF, you wouldn't post crap like that.  You ***** if (in your opinion) we don't recruit quality players, then when we do, you say crap like, "he won't play, so he shouldn't come"

It's one thing to be a realist, but you've gone off the deep end.  If you are a fan (I wonder about this), then act like a fan every once in a while.

[windbane]

voss will not be comimg to usf to sit for 3 years

he is better of going to ftu/ou/oc where he has a chance to start all 4 years

you could say that to any top recruit going to USC or any other top program.  why go there when you could go elsewhere and start all 4 years?

why dont all the top recruits come here to play all 4 years?

you cant have it both ways.  we are better than ftu and in a better situation, so a lot of recruits would rather go here.

[Bull Martin]

Also Smazza, Voss is an amazing athlete.  He may be playing some where before he gets a start at QB.  First off he'll be redshirted behind GrothE So He'll have this team for 2 years all by himself.  He'll be 2nd QB in two years and he'll get in more than our 2nd QB now.

[Matt]

voss will redshirt and any top recruit should not be worried about people ahead of them.  they should welcome the competition and realize that it will make them better by having that competition day in and day out in practice