MaxPreps Weekly Honor Roll, presented by the United States Marine Corps: Kaleb Leafers, Tavares

When Kaleb Leafers started playing football, he was 7 and weighed 42 pounds.

He was fitted with the smallest helmet possible, but even that was too big. His dad, Brad, recalls placing a knee pad in the crown of the helmet so his son's head would fit more snugly.

At that age, Leafers was taking on kids twice his size. However, his small stature never deterred him on the football field.

Now as a senior at Tavares (Fla.), Leafers is using his compact 5-foot-6, 135-pound frame to his advantage. As a wide receiver who lines up mostly in the slot or in the backfield, Leafers is a big-time offensive weapon for the Bulldogs.

"He's kind of slippery," Tavares coach Scott Armatti said. "He can duck some things and he's broken a couple of long runs because he can squeeze in between stuff. Another thing he's gotten good at, when he does run in the backfield he's not trying to bounce everything. If there's a little crack there, he'll hit it as hard as he can."

Leafers patterns his game after former NFL legendary running back Barry Sanders, who is 5-foot-8, and 5-foot-10 New England Patriots slot receiver Julian Edelman.

"Being small, it kind of helps a lot, actually," Leafers said. "If you were a defensive player and you see me back there you're going to think, ‘Oh, wow, I won't expect much out of him.' But I'm popping big plays against the defense. And they're like, ‘OK, we might need to watch that guy.' "

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Leafers, who is in his second season starting, is having a career year. He's tied for 12th in Florida in total touchdowns with 19. He has 15 rushing touchdowns, three receiving and one via a kickoff return. He's amassed 894 yards rushing and 275 yards receiving.

The kid can do it all. It's his versatility that makes him tough to gameplan against.

"It's nice, because the defense really has no idea what's going on," Leafers said. "I could be doing a jet sweep or I could be countering and it would set up a big play on the other end."

Armatti likes to put his slot receiver in motion and create havoc or line him up behind his quarterback and let him use his great vision.

Leafers is averaging 9.1 yards per carry. In the third game of the season, he ran 20 times for 283 yards and four touchdowns. He got the starting nod at running back that night and amassed 240 yards in the opening half alone.

A downfield threat as well, Leafers has eight catches, but three have gone for touchdowns — 73, 65 and 52 yards. Leafers has a staggering 30.3 yards per reception. Through a lot of hard work, Leafers has become a more polished route runner this year. It helps when he's lined up in single coverage against a bigger linebacker.

"Since I'm so fast and agile, I give them a little two-step move," Leafers said. "If I'm going outside, I usually fake inside — go inside of them and swim move over him and get past him."

Leafers has increased his speed and explosiveness on the field by being dedicated in the weight room. He works on his legs extensively, doing front and back squats and deadlifts. He can squat 350 pounds, nearly three times his body weight.

"A full year and a half in the weight room working really hard in there, he's gotten thicker," Armatti said.

Last year, Leafers went out for the state-sanctioned sport, weightlifting. He did phenomenally well, winning districts, placing second at regionals and finishing 11th at state in the 129-pound division in Class 1A. Even though he was the second smallest guy in the 18-person state field, he logged a combined bench press and clean/jerk of 385 pounds.

Also during the spring season, Leafers competes in track and field, primarily in the 100- and 200-yard dash, 400-relay and long jump. His best event is the 100 — with a personal-record time of 11.19 — where he's .09 seconds off the school record.

Leafers is a well-rounded athlete, but a just as strong student in the classroom. He has a 4.08 weighted grade point average and is a two-year member of the National Honor Society.

Leafers isn't a stranger to helping around the community either. He's clocked over 100 volunteer hours while in high school. Since his dad's a sheriff's deputy, Leafers takes part in plenty of law enforcement activities, including helping kids at a seven-day summer camp, Shop With a Cop and delivering meals on Thanksgiving.

"It makes me feel happy and it's a good feeling in my heart," said Leafers about volunteering. "When you hand those meals to the less fortunate and just to see their reaction, it feels great."

Around the school, Leafers lends a hand with a two-day campus cleanup — painting the locker rooms, pulling weeds, planting flowers and cleaning sidewalks.

"He takes his academics pretty seriously," Armatti said. "He knows that's the ticket to whatever he wants to do next."

Leafers' goal is to play football at the next level. He's garnered interest from the Division III Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee.

"If this kid was six inches taller and 50 pounds heavier, there'd be Division I colleges crawling over the fence to recruit him," Armatti said. "But because of the grades and the test scores that he has, he's definitely going to have some opportunities to play college football, because he'll be able to fund a lot of his education with academics."

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