By LORI LYONS, Journal Sports
Brotherhood.
It’s one of the things Captain Shreve senior scholar-athlete Briggs Savage loves about playing football and baseball at Captain Shreve High School.
“All my close friends play football,” he said. “And I can just enjoy it whenever I’m having a hard time outside of football, I can just put it all into the game. Whether I’m mad or sad or disappointed, I can just focus on football and work hard.”
Savage is a stellar 6-foot-1, 215-pound linebacker for the football team and plays third base for the baseball team. In two games, he’s made 16.5 total tackles (8 solos), has 1.5 sacks and five quarterback hurries – and has hustled across the ball to catch a touchdown pass in spot duty at tight end.
He also holds a 4.0 grade point average and is one of 37 Shreveport-Bossier seniors who have been named to the fifth annual National Football Foundation McNaughton Chapter Preseason Scholar-Athlete Watch List.
Nominees must have at least a 3.2 grade point average, have won all-district honors or have remarkable team impact, and be involved in extracurricular activities.
A member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a hopeful candidate to join the National English Honor Society, Savage said he enjoys learning about the different civilizations in history class. He even enjoys writing papers.
“Except I can’t type very well so that kind of sucks,” he said.
Brotherhood also is what helped Savage become the athlete that he is.
As the younger brother of 2024 Watch Lister Brodie Savage, now a freshman quarterback at Central Georgia Tech College, Savage followed his big brother first into flag football then onto the field at Captain Shreve.
“We got to play two years together,” Briggs Savage said. “It was definitely a good experience. I enjoyed it. He was on the opposite side of the ball, but I guess he helped me with stuff. Growing up I was always compared to him. In football people would try to tell me I could play quarterback like he did. People would compare us but it was OK. He’s my big brother. I liked it.”
Savage said he always worked hard to be better in football and he will savor the memory of getting to play in his first game as a sophomore.
“That was my favorite moment so far,” he said.
But he definitely is looking forward to this year’s contest against rival Byrd, and he will love a rematch against Evangel, who knocked the Gators out of last year’s playoffs after Shreve took a 77-76 regular-season classic.
Savage does love a battle. While he was in middle school, he took up boxing just for fun.
“I just fell in love with it,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to pursue it, but it’s something I do enjoy doing in my free time.”
Savage said he isn’t sure what his future will bring. With a few Division 2 and 3 offers in hand, he hopes to get a few more by year’s end. And if one of those reunites him with his big brother, well, that would be OK too.
“We’ll see,” he said. “It just depends on what happens.”
Contact Lori at sportslyons@gmail.com