COVER 3 – STATE CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION: Three athletes that stood out from the 2024 Class 7A State Championship Game

Our Cover 3 feature on FloridaHSFootball.com will be a complimentary part of our Daily Drive Podcast with Christopher Lyke, which begins on January 2, 2025. In this year’s week-long state championship extravaganza at FIU’s Pitbull Stadium. Among the two concluding games to the week-long slate of state championships, The Lake Mary Rams challenged the Venice Indians for the Class 7A State Championship, and it ended up with Venice convincingly winning the game by a 52-19 score.

Here are three players in our Cover 3 we felt deserved the recognition they so richly deserve:

RB/KR Gata Wilder – Venice

Gata Wilder saw his name called 19 times, and three of those possessions counted as a visit to the end zone. Wilder collected a grand total of 1178 yards on the ground. In total, the Indians rushed for 324 yards. Two of Wilder’s touchdowns came in the first half with the first coming in at the 2:10 mark in the first quarter/ The second touchdown virtually put the first nail in the coffin with a 19-yard run with just 25 seconds remaining in the first half.

WR/RB Winston Watkins Jr. – Venice

Aside from Gata Wilder, the Venice offense also made good use of Winston Watkins, Jr. Whether on the ground or in the air, Watkins ensured the Lake Mary Rams could not muster up any comeback. He was targeted 15 times through the air and grabbed nine catches for 76 yards. On the ground, he ran it twice for a total of 30 more yards. Both of those runs resulted in the Indians getting two more touchdowns. Nevermind, Watkins also returned a punt for a 60-yard touchdown late in the second quarter that started to separate Venice from Lake Mary even more.

DB Brad Billups – Lake Mary

Lake Mary had to deal with a lot of punishment at the hands of the Venice offense. The last line of defense was the Rams defensive backs, and one of those players was Brad Billips. Billups was positioned as the cornerback and often went head-to-head with Wilder and Watson. Billups accounted for eight solo tackles, with no other player getting more than five solo tackles. The only other player with more total tackles was DE Jaylan Golden. Billups was also the only player on the Ram’s defense to be credited with a pass breakup. If there is any solace in the Rams’ defeat, Billups left it all on the line in the season’s final game.