The Winona Christian School football team had one of the most explosive offenses in MAIS Class 3A football last year.
And all-purpose back Dalton Wiggins was one of the main reasons that the Stars were able to stretch defenses and average 35 points a game.
Wiggins finished the year with 855 yards rushing on 111 carries and had 837 yards receiving on 56 catches.
“Dalton had over 800 yards receiving and 800 yards passing and that’s not counting return yardage,” Winona Christian coach Junior Graham said. “He’s a guy who has a chance to carry it the distance any time he gets the ball in hands. He runs with power and finesse and has really good hands. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him drop a football. He’s a really good football player and factors big time into what we are going to do this season.”
Graham said opposing defenses could see Wiggins line up at multiple positions on offense, anywhere from wide receiver to running back to quarterback.
“We are going to play him at both running back and receiver,” Graham said. “We are going to move him at receiver to the backside position that Choyce Diffey played last year. He will likely get a lot of one-on-one coverage on the backside there. It will definitely make defenses have to make a decision on how to play us. And he is going to factor into the backup role at quarterback. And you can do that with Dalton because he is a really smart kid. He processes information really well and picks things up really quick.”
On defense, Wiggins played cornerback last year but will likely be lining up at free safety this year, again trying to fill the shoes of Diffey, who was the MAIS Class 3A Defensive Player of the Year.
“We are going to move him to free safety and try to fill that void that Choyce left there,” Graham said. “We feel like we have somebody who can play his cornerback position and that frees us up to move him to safety. He’s a ball hawk, just like Choyce and strong enough to go up and get the jump balls. He’s a good tackler and can keep people from scoring and bring them down in the open field.”
Wiggins is the rare four-sport athlete and starts in every sport, playing guard in basketball and center field in baseball. In track, Wiggins is a sprinter and finished fourth in the 100-meter dash as a sophomore, losing out to three future Division I athletes.
“He has run a 4.6 every time we’ve clocked him and he may get into the 4.5s,” Graham said. “What has happened is he has gotten a lot better at running his routes and making his cuts. And he’s just a kid that plays really fast on the field. He can certainly hold his own on the track when it comes to sprinting.”
Besides his physical attributes, Graham said Wiggins is a model citizen as well.
“He is going to be in the weight room every time,” Graham said. “He’s a really good student and a solid kid. He’s one of those that is holding down a summer job and still taking care of business as far as the team is concerned. He’s a really quiet kid and performs well in the classroom.”
Graham, who has more than 30 years of coaching experience said Wiggins can certainly play football at the next level.
“I’ve had players that played at Millsaps and Belhaven and Dalton is certainly better than those guys,” Graham said. “I don’t know what his position is in college. I would have told you going into last year that it would be defensive back. But he has really come on as a receiver and has such good hands and makes really good cuts. I think he is definitely an inside receiver at the next level. He only weighs 165 pounds but could easily put on 15 pounds and you would never know it. But he could play cornerback as well because he has really good hips.”
In baseball, Wiggins started in center for Coach Shannon Self, who has coached him since he was 8. Self said Wiggins had turned the corner at the plate and was off to a good start to the season.
“Dalton had really bought into our hitting philosophy,” Self said. “I think he was in the midst of a good year and was going to finish with a big year. He was really eager to learn what we were doing and it was showing. He was hitting in the mid .300s and was really on his way to a big season. He runs extremely well and that always helps. He’s a kid that if he had chosen to pursue upper-level baseball, he could have easily done that. He’s a really talented kid and we are hoping for a big year out of him in both baseball and football.”
Graham said the best thing he has seen about Wiggins is his ability to learn and work to get better.
“With Dalton, he has gotten better in each sport he plays,” Graham said. “And he understands his role in each sport. Like in basketball, he understands he’s not a guy who is going to take 30 shots a game but knows he is a defensive player and gets that. He just understands his role in the sports he plays and I think that’s what makes him such a good player.”
Wiggins to play key role in WCS’s explosive offense
