Fantastic Fifteen: Gage Tomlinson chases baseball dreams while anchoring Knights defense

Gage Tomlinson smiles when he talks about football.

Not because of touchdowns.

Not because of championships.

Because of tackles.

“I love hitting people and knocking them down,” the Deerfield-Windsor senior said with a grin. “Then picking them back up.”

That sentence explains just about everything anyone needs to know about Tomlinson.

He plays football with controlled violence, but he never forgets there’s another player on the other side of the collision.

That’s the way Deerfield-Windsor has taught the game for years.

It’s also why Tomlinson has become one of the emotional leaders of a Knights defense expected to be among the best in the GIAA this season.

Ironically, football wasn’t always part of the plan.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior dreams of playing college baseball and, if everything breaks right, one day pitching professionally.

On the diamond, he’ll be one of Deerfield-Windsor’s top pitchers while anchoring the infield at shortstop.

Football was almost an afterthought.

Tomlinson didn’t put on shoulder pads until he arrived at Deerfield-Windsor as a freshman.

At first, football was simply another sport.

Then came his sophomore season.

He fell in love with the weight room.

He became stronger.

He became more confident.

And somewhere along the way, he realized he had become a pretty good defensive football player.

That season ended with Deerfield-Windsor celebrating a state championship after defeating Valwood in Statesboro.

Suddenly, football wasn’t just preparing him for baseball.

It had become one of the best parts of his life.

Not because of the wins.

Because of the people.

“It’s these brothers that you meet and spend so much time with,” Tomlinson said. “They are friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Those relationships are now driving a defense filled with experienced players.

While the Knights must replace much of last year’s offensive production, Tomlinson believes the returning defense can keep Deerfield-Windsor among the state’s elite.

The focus throughout the offseason has been simple.

Play faster.

Pursue the football.

Finish every play.

“We’ve got to take it one game at a time, one play at a time,” Tomlinson said. “We’ve got to see the ball on every play and go put them on the ground.”

The expectations haven’t changed despite graduating a talented senior class.

If anything, they have grown.

“They set the standard for us,” Tomlinson said. “They made us all better. They did their jobs. Now we have to do ours.”

The son of Neal and Amber Tomlinson, Gage understands his football career may end before his baseball career does.

He’s perfectly fine with that.

Football has already given him something he wasn’t expecting.

A second family.

And one final opportunity to help lead Deerfield-Windsor’s defense when the Knights open the season Friday night against Valwood in a matchup that serves as a reminder of how far the program has come.

Whether Tomlinson’s future eventually unfolds on a baseball field or, perhaps, a professional mound, he’ll always remember the lessons he learned on Friday nights.

Sometimes the toughest players are also the first ones to lend a hand.