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View Full Version : With Garrett in his heart, Bevil leads Lamar to comeback win



bigred360
September 19th, 2010, 07:45 AM
Andre Bevil remembered the day Reggie Garrett walked out of his house and said he wanted to play football, just like Bevil.

"He was a basketball player his whole life and he came out and said he, 'Hey, man, I want to play football. I want to do whatever you do,'" Bevil said. "So I said, 'Well, I play quarterback.'

"So he said, 'Alright, I'm going to play quarterback just like you.' Ever since then he took quarterbacking into his hands. He learned a few things from me. I believed a played a role in his life playing quarterback."

One day after Garrett's life ended after he collapsed on the sideline during a high school football game, Bevil played an inspired game in Garrett's memory. Bevil, once a West Orange-Stark quarterback like Garrett, threw for 417 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Lamar University football team to a 29-28 comeback victory Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana.

The Cardinals overcame a three-touchdown deficit in the second half. Bevil threw the last of his three second-half touchdowns with 1 minute 52 seconds left on a 19-yard fade pass to wide receiver J.J. Hayes in the back left corner of the end zone.

Bevil dedicated the game to Garrett's memory. Bevil wore a sticker with Garrett's uniform number - No. 12 - on the back of his helmet and on the sides of his cleats. He put folded newspaper articles about his lifelong friend in his thigh pads. He posted a photo of Garrett on his locker in Beaumont.

www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/wi....html?c=y&page=1