The last line of defense

POSITION: Defensive back MEASUREMENTS: 5-10, 160lbs.

GHS defensive back Stephon Adams has been a key cog in a pass defense that has limited opponents to an average of only 82 yards a game. WORTHY OF NOTE: Adams shut down T.L. Hanna wideout Quinton Payton, who has commmited to North Carolina State.

Here's a pop quiz: "What's the best pass D?"

Before you mull that over too long, here's the answer: "A pass rush!"

But good cover corners don't hurt, either.

Just ask Gaffney defensive back Stephon Adams, who has two interceptions, numerous breakups and has been a major factor in limiting opposing offense's to only 82 passing yards a game.

His breakout game came earlier this season when he was matched against T.L. Hanna wideout Quinton Payton, a North Carolina State commitment.

Adams held Payton to one catch for minus three yards. He also scooped up a Payton fumble and returned it 43 yards for the game's first touchdown.

His skills were again on display in the third quarter when he knocked away two straight passes intended for Payton in the end zone to stop a drive.

"I feel good about the way I'm playing," is about the closest the unassuming Adams will come to patting himself on the back.

But Adams turns very chatty when talk turns to his biggest fan, his mother, Phyllis.

"I love her to death!" Stephon said. "I'm a momma's boy."

Especially on Friday nights.

Because of unexplained seizures Stephon experienced as a youth, Phyllis rises from her seat, tenses up and clutches tightly anything she is holding in reaction to an expected collision between her son and an opponent.

"When she sees me getting ready to make a tackle she gets real nervous and jumps up," Stephon said.

Initially, Phyllis opposed Stephon's desire to play football.

"She was afraid I would have another seizure," Stephon said. "But I grew out of it."

Phyllis finally relented and allowed Stephon to try out for the middle school team. He proved to be a quick learner, starting at defensive back and wide receiver.

As a freshman, he started at defensive back on the ninth-grade team. A year later, he split time between the junior varsity and varsity.

Last season, a knee injury sidelined him until the sixth game of the season.

"It was hard to be injured. I sat out the beginning of the season and had to earn my spot back," he said.

He was bit by another injury earlier in the preseason before returning for the Laurens scrimmage, but has looked in midseason form ever since.

While his mother is his role model off the field, on the field it's NFL great Deion Sanders.

"He never hit really hard, but he got the job done," Adams said.

Purposeful short-term memory loss is a must for the position.

"You have to get the last play out of your head," he said.

It's no accident that Adams is one of the more animated and popular players on the team. He said he's trying to step into the role that former Gaffney High linebacker J.B. Shippy filled last year.

"I was a little vocal last year," he said. "I'm just trying to be the leader that J.B. was. When I see somebody who is down, I just tell them not to worry about it. You have to keep everybody on the team up."