PREP COUNTDOWN 2020: Arington does it all for Billingsley

By TIM GAYLE

Billingsley coach Phillip Coggins certainly doesn’t think the Bears are a one-man team, but there’s no question having Levi Arington at quarterback improves the Bears’ chances of winning.

Now, if he can just keep his talented junior from trying to run over everyone in his path.

“He’s looking for contact or he can run away from it,” Coggins said. “He is probably our most physical guy as far as just looking for contact.”     

A shoulder injury midway through the 2019 season gave Arington a purpose as he went through offseason conditioning the past few months.

“I tried to get stronger so I wouldn’t get hurt,” he said, “because last year I got my shoulder injury and I think it was because I wasn’t as strong as I am this year. And during the offseason, I did a speed-training thing with my older brother and we both got a little faster. I used to run a 5.1 and now I run a 4.7, 4.8.”

As the younger brother of former Billingsley tailback Taylor Arington, there were high expectations on Levi when he broke into the starting ranks as a varsity player in the eighth grade, but he was ready for it. 

“My dad was in the Army,” he said, “so he started us working out when we were young.”

He was a starter at safety as an eighth grader, then took over at quarterback as a freshman. Last year, the arrival of Coggins from Highland Home boosted Arington’s confidence.

“When Coach came in, we all knew he was the real deal and his plays were good,” Arington said. “We all knew what Coach could do for the team.”

After a shaky start led to losses to Keith and Isabella, the Bears started clicking, relying on the deceptively fast Arington as a runner, not to mention the sophomore’s strong arm as a passer.

“Levi brings an ability to throw the football accurately and also gives us a lot with his legs,” Coggins said. “Teams can’t just play coverage and if they stack the box, he can throw it. He’s a dual threat guy that is really efficient and deceptively fast and strong.”

He was injured during the win over Prattville Christian in Week 4 and did not return from his shoulder injury until the first round of the 1A playoffs, but in those five games he rushed for 493 yards and six touchdowns on 51 carries, an astonishing 9.7 yards per carry. He completed 40 of 63 passes (63.5 percent) for 522 yards and seven touchdowns with four interceptions.

“His ability to read a defense is improving,” Coggins said. “I think that’s where we’ve got to make the most improvement going into football season. The accuracy is there, the physicality is there, but decision making can always be better, no matter how good it is.”

On defense, he had 46 tackles, an average of nine tackles per game, along with four tackles for loss, a sack, a fumble recovery and a pair of interceptions.  

Now, Coggins is walking a fine line as his star prepares for another season. The physical part of the game is what makes Arington a college prospect in the secondary and a big-play threat at quarterback, but that is what sidelined him for six weeks last season. As for Arington, the physicality is what he believes separates the Bears from winning games against neighbors such as Thorsby, Isabella and Maplesville.

“Everybody’s getting stronger,” he said. “We’ve got to be a lot more physical than them. They’ve got big guys on the line, but we’ve got better skill guys, I believe.”

If he stays healthy this season and puts up similar numbers to those abbreviated statistics in 2019, this season could be a special one for Arington.

“I like to break some records, not only the schools’ (records) but those around the area,” Arington said. “And go deep in the playoffs.”