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Ocala (FL) Star-Banner wrote:Defensive Football POY: Adrian Hope
Vanguard senior Adrian Hope is the Ocala Star-Banner Defensive Football Player of the Year. He is shown in the Vanguard High School locker room in Ocala on Dec. 22. (Alan Youngblood/Staff photographer)
Posted Dec 31, 2016 at 9:24 PM
Updated Jan 1, 2017 at 6:11 PM
By Paul Kardasz
Adrian Hope has spent his entire high school career trying to prove how good he is.
The topic of what position he can play the best and whether or not he is stronger from a three-point or two-point stance always seem to come up when talking about him as a player.
And a lot of that comes from those who have never even seen him in action.
But after seeing him dominate the line of scrimmage, fighting off double teams, and still spending most of his time in the opposing team's backfield harassing quarterbacks and gobbling up tackles for huge losses, the technical hype about this kid becomes heresy.
But through all this, Hope made the most of the scrutiny by producing another stellar season, while helping Vanguard to a 10-2 record which included a trip to the 6A regional finals.
Hope finished the fall with 22 sacks to lead the county for the second straight season, and his 52 career sacks is a Marion County record, previously at 39 1/2 held by North Marion's Demarrio Sims.
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