TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - On Friday night, Rickards High welcomes in the East Gadsden Jaguars for the "Soul Bowl." It's a showdown that has extra meaning being that both coaches are from the south side of Tallahassee.
They're good friends, who have helped each other along the way. While one dons the blue and gold currently, those colors run deep through both of their veins.
"We lived, literally, you could throw a rock to each other's front porch," East Gadsden head coach Corey Fuller remembered. "When Quintin was young, I knew him when he was young, I used to hit him upside the head. It's all out of love. Our neighborhood, when we were growing up, we raised each other as all of us were family."
"He's like a big brother to me," said Quintin Lewis, who coaches at Rickards. "He grew up with my family. We know each other very well. I calll him my brother. I tell him I love him all the time, and it's just that camaraderie we have from coming out the same neighborhood."
That neighborhood? Orange Avenue Apartments, less than a mile from Rickards High School where both Fuller and Lewis would go on to star for the then Rickards Redskins football teams.
"We both had a dream of making it out of the projects so to speak," said Lewis. "To be able to come through Rickards High School, to represent Rickards as a coach is amazing to me. Same thing with Corey Fuller. He's probably one of the most famous Rickards Raiders, or Redskins, out there. He does a great job of doing what he does and really influencing young men's lives."
Fuller went on to play at Florida State and in the NFL before returning to the Big Bend to coach, and all that's on his mind now? Doing the best he can do for the East Gadsden Jaguars.
"The legend is coming home not to lose!" proclaimed Fuller. "I have to bring some excitement to this because I know Coach Lewis is not going to say anything, and I know they want to win!"
"He's Corey Fuller. If anybody knows Corey Fuller, you know what you get," laughed Lewis. "He's going to make sure you know it. It's just a privilege for me to be here. It's just a blessing for two guys from Orange Avenue Apartment Complex, otherwise known as South City, coaching football at one of the highest stages in our Big Bend area."
"What you see if not what you be, and what you hear is not what you have to do," said Fuller. "You have t believe in you. Your dream is your dream, and you have to go after it. I think me and Quint did a good job of going after our dreams."
A dream that started on Orange Avenue.
