Versatile Boeck will lead Trojans against Oak Ridge
“I’d say 99 percent of what I know about football, he’s taught me. ... He’s been a huge factor in helping make me the player I am today.”
– TY BOECK ON HIS FATHER, TROY BOECK
Soddy-Daisy’s Ty Boeck confirmed that he has never worked in a concession stand. Therefore, the rumors of him selling popcorn at halftime of home football games aren’t true.
However, the senior has done just about everything else on Friday nights throughout his high school career. He and his Trojans teammates are hoping to keep their season going tonight when they travel to Oak Ridge for a first-round game in the Class 5A state playoffs. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Boeck came to Soddy-Daisy as a sophomore.
He had played on Signal Mountain’s junior varsity as a freshman, getting the occasional playing time on special teams and at linebacker on varsity. He recalls his one start, which was against Chattanooga Christian.
“I didn’t really do that well,” Boeck said.
That’s ancient history now. The 6-foot2, 215-pounder leads Soddy-Daisy with 1,006 rushing yards, 20 total touchdowns and 125 tackles. He’s one of three Trojans with a team-high two fumble recoveries, and he’s third on the team with 287 receiving yards.
“I’ll do anything to help my team win,” Boeck said.
Boeck has proven that time and again. He began his junior season at Soddy-Daisy as a wide receiver and looked as though he was going to shine as a pass-catcher before quarterback Justin Cooke was injured.
“Back then I was a little bit smaller,” Boeck said, “and probably a little bit faster.”
Current quarterback Gavin Chambers was a sophomore then and Soddy-Daisy coach Justin Barnes, himself a former quarterback, said he didn’t feel Chambers was ready to be thrust in there at that point.
So the coach turned to Boeck, whose only experience playing quarterback was primarily as a runner in a veer offense when he was in sixth grade at Jasper Middle.
“Last year he was put in a position that was better for the team, but not necessarily better for him,” Barnes said. “He did his part to give his best every week. We played him at quarterback, which he’d never played it before. But he handled it well. Against Walker Valley he threw for almost 300 yards and a couple of scores and kept us in the game.”
Eventually, Chambers got an opportunity to contribute, plus Cooke returned late in the season and finished out at quarterback. So with Boeck’s days as a signal caller done, Barnes instead of putting him back at receiver moved him to running back, where he could get his hands on the ball more often.
Boeck is the son of former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defensive lineman Troy Boeck, a former Southern Conference defensive player of the year and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. The elder Boeck had a stint as head coach at Marion County and was on the staff at Signal Mountain before coming to Soddy-Daisy, where he’s the defensive coordinator.
“I’d say 99 percent of what I know about football, he’s taught me,” the younger Boeck said. “It’s been almost everything, from schemes to how hard to work in the offseason and how to eat right. He’s been a huge factor in helping make me the player I am today.”
The player he is today is probably best at playing linebacker, the position he has played the most and the one colleges are likely most interested in for him. He has made unofficial visits to East Tennessee State, Carson-Newman, Lindsey Wilson, UTC and Tennessee Tech.
For the record, Boeck also has punted the ball in his career, as well as snapped it back to the punter.
“My dad always told me to get good at it,” Boeck said of the latter. “Colleges are always in need of a long snapper.”
Some college surely will offer Boeck the opportunity to play football. He has a 3.7 grade point average, and his best score on the ACT has been a 28.
“The only thing he hasn’t done is play offensive line for us,” said Barnes, who didn’t rule out that he wasn’t capable of playing well there, too. But the coach added: “If we have to play him there, we’re in trouble.”