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Reed emerges along Dover offensive line


As far as offensive line anchors go, it's hard to find one bigger than Chad Reed. At 6-foot-6, 325 pounds, it's hard not to notice Dover's senior lineman.

Lately, it seems others have taken notice, too.

Add Reed to the YAIAA's list of legitimate college football prospects. Reed has received verbal scholarship offers from three schools, according to Eagles coach Bill Miller: Temple, Army and Old Dominion.

Reed's rise has been a rapid one. Despite his tremendous size, Reed barely saw the field as a sophomore. He was too weak, and too raw in terms of his footwork and overall skills.

"Between sophomore and junior year, really committed himself, and worked really hard," Miller said. "It wasn’t until I was putting his highlight tape together last year that I realized what kind of player he was."

Reed had a good model growing up. His brother, Seth Reed, graduated from Dover in 2006 and went to play college football at Army.

"(After his sophomore year) his brother was emerging as a starting player at West Point," Miller said. "What happened was Chad saw that, and Chad said 'I can aspire to be that.'"

Chad focused primarily on strength and agility training that spring and summer. One of the exercises, Miller said, was to have Reed jump rope during lifting sessions.

The results were staggering. Reed won Dover's starting right tackle job last summer. He helped clear the way for one of the YAIAA's most dominant rushing attacks; the Eagles racked up 2,853 total yards on the ground, and averaged 6.4 yards per carry. (Reed will move over to left tackle this season.)

With the vast majority of its starters back, Dover should be able to build on last fall's 6-4 turnaround season. That, Miller said, is Reed's main focus right now.

"I don’t believe Chad is in any real hurry," Miller said. "He wants to focus on his senior year. That’s a common theme among these seniors. The team comes first."