Southern Nevada’s top defensive player countdown — No. 5
Desert Pines linebacker/safety Tony Fields comes in at No. 5 on our #NVprepsfb list of Southern Nevada’s top defensive players.
To create the list, we spoke with coaches from the Sunrise and Sunset Regions in both 4A and 3A. A couple of the base questions were: “Who is the top high school defensive player today?” and “Who would you pick to start a team?”
Then we grabbed the statistics from last season, looked at the player’s collective rankings on recruiting websites and used our own judgment to fill holes.
This resulted in the #NVprepsfb defensive player rank. The list is based off high school productivity and not college or professional potential.
#NVprepsfb Defensive Player Rank: Desert Pines’ Tony Fields No. 5
Class
2017
Vitals
6 feet, 2 inches; 200 pounds
Honors
Second-team all-state (2015); second-team Division I-A all-state (2015); first-team all-Southern Region (2015); first-team all-Sunrise Region (2015)
Recruiting
Fields, who is a consensus three-star prospect, committed to Arizona on May 7. He also has scholarship offers from Arizona State, Boise State, Brigham Young, Colorado, Colorado State, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Northwestern, Oregon State, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, UNR and Washington State.
Last Year’s Stats
Fields had 93 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions. He also scored two touchdowns for the Jaguars, who fell to Moapa Valley in the Division I-A state quarterfinals.
What they are saying?
— “He’s one of those devastating linebackers in the middle that you want to run away from,” one Sunrise Region football coach said. “Just his attitude, his leadership. Some people play the sport because they love it and have a passion. That’s the type of player he is. He’s a role model out there. When he steps up, everybody else thinks they need to step up.”
— “It’s probably Tony (that is Desert Pines’ top player) on the defensive side,” one Sunrise Region football coach said. “He’s got the intangibles. He also has the agility and ability to get to the football.”
— “Tony is the modern day football player,” one Sunrise Region football coach said. “He’s a tweener — a safety and a linebacker. Kind of like (former Pittsburgh Steelers safety) Troy Polamalu. He can be in the box and make tackles and he can play over the top.”
If you want to get involved in the discussion, #NVprepsfb is the Twitter hashtag to use. You also can follow along @nevadapreps.