JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Raines offensive lineman Solomon Thomas doesn’t downplay it. He didn’t grow up planning to play football.
Things changed, and changed quickly, when the sport came to him.
“When football got ahold of me, it’s never let me go.” Thomas said.
Thomas’ relationship with football is not just good, it’s great. His love for Vikings football started at a young age when his family members attended Raines High School and played on the football team.
“I grew up in that Raines, loving the school of Raines before football,” Thomas said.
His earliest memories are attending Raines football games and watching the varsity players compete under the Friday night lights.
“I will come to the games and see the big kids, my mom was like ‘you’re not playing football’,” Thomas said. “I was the smallest in the family, but to everybody else they were like ‘he’s huge. Is he playing football?’ my mom would be like ‘no he’s playing basketball. He’s doing track. Anything but football.’”
Finally in the eighth grade, Thomas was allowed to play football. At 6-4 and 280 pounds — he was built like a lineman — that wasn’t the problem. Now Thomas needed to learn how to be an offensive lineman. That’s when former Raines football player Solomon Kindley helped teach Thomas.
“Freshman year coming in I didn’t know anything,” Thomas said. “I was just a big kid that was athletic. Sol got a hold of me because of course we hold the same name so he coached me up well and that’s pretty much where I get most of my technique from.”
Kindley did something right because, Thomas, now a junior, is a five-star national recruit, according to 247Sports Composite rankings.
“He’s been a big impact,” Raines head coach Donovan Masline said. “I think with him, we’re going to continue coach you hard. No matter what accolades may come your way or your status. He knows and a lot of our kids know that much is given, much is required.”
Thomas’ status as one of the best in the country doesn’t change who he is.
“You have a village as long as you’re humble,” Thomas said. “Coming to Raines you would be surprised how many people talk to me that I don’t even know. Anybody saying my name. I will be going to the store, ‘you 65′?”
“Keep the main thing, the main thing,” Thomas said. “You want to graduate with a high school diploma. You want to get out here with some authority under your belt with some kind of honor. You want to go to college and start as a freshman. Just keep your goals, your goals. Whatever got you there continue doing that.”
Now as a leader on the team, he is helping the future of Raines football.
“Now I’m the oldest on the O-line, but I have to really coach those guys,” Thomas said.