BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Even after posting the third best single-season rushing total in Valley history, McAllen Memorial’s Trevor Speights wasted no time getting back to work after the year ended.
Speights says he’s been lifting “about every day” since the Mustangs season came to a close, adhering to a five-meals-per-day plan designed to help him bulk up so that his senior year, and eventual college career, can be even better.
That commitment is why Speights ran for 2,655 yards and 30 touchdowns, committed to play for the University for Arizona, earned AP first-team All-State honors, garnered two SEC offers and was named the All-Valley Player of the Year for the second consecutive season during a busy 2014.
“It’s a great achievement, and I’m grateful for achieving this achievement again,” Speights said.
Speights tore up the Valley this year at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, and his goal is to get to 205 before he enters college.
Right now, the destination looks to be Arizona. Speights showed up to McAllen Memorial on the final day of classes before winter break decked out in Wildcats gear: an Arizona t-shirt, Arizona shorts with an Arizona lanyard hanging from the right pocket, and even an Arizona-red watch.
But national signing day is still a ways off, and plenty of schools are hard at work recruiting. Speights said he receives 20 to 30 letters per day, from schools like Florida State, Georgia, TCU and Texas. He picked up offers from Tennessee and Missouri during his junior season.
“It’s always good to get an SEC offer under your belt,” Speights said.
Despite all of the attention, his father, John Speights, said Trevor always has an eye on the players considered better than him. Trevor was at one point ranked as the No. 266 player in the 2016 class by ESPN, but he has since dropped out of the rankings. ESPN still rates him as a three-star prospect. Rivals also has Speights as a three-star player, the No. 23 running back overall and the No. 54 prospect in Texas.
“He does spend a lot of time here watching film,” John said. “Not only his film, but film of his peers around the country. Guys who are maybe ranked higher than him. He evaluates what they’re doing, and he compares himself to those guys.”
Trevor also picks up drills and techniques from his home study. On Twitter, he once saw a running back drill Charlie Strong was using at Texas, with players powering through the resistance arms of the blaster, planting their foot, and coming back through the other way. Thinking it might be beneficial, he brought the idea to Memorial practice the next day.
“We started doing it, and that’s our staple now,” Memorial offensive coordinator Marcus Kaufmann said.
Trevor said he owes his success to his family. The Speights own the Optimum Therapy clinic in McAllen, with John handling the clinical side and Trevor’s mother, Alandra, handling the administrative. They do well enough to send Trevor to all the camps and visits he could need, and to provide added benefits like a $250 Under Armour mouthpiece designed to help Trevor breathe better.
They’ve also bestowed him with good genetics. Trevor’s cousin Marreese plays for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. John played college football at a small school in Tennessee, and he remembers teaching Trevor how to hold the ball and execute a proper stiff arm. Trevor’s younger brother, Campbell, just finished his seventh-grade season at Cathey Middle School, notching a nine-touchdown game among his many highlights.
“He’s going to be a real good one,” McAllen Memorial coach Bill Littleton said.
For now, Memorial can still rely on Trevor, who enters his senior year having already amassed 6,673 yards and 66 touchdowns in his career.
With 1,130 yards, he can become the leading rusher in Valley history, and with 2,182 he would rank fourth on the state’s all-time list.
“I’m very proud of him. I know how much work he puts in trying to get better, faster and stronger,” John said. “He’s pleased with his success, and I am to. We feel like he’s been blessed to do as well as he has been.”