You know about the team’s around the region, but maybe not as much about the players you see flying around fields on Friday nights (and, sometimes, Saturday afternoons).

For the 2019 Sun Journal football preview, we’ve interviewed four players from around the region who figure to be key contributors on their respective teams to see what they enjoy, how their team is looking, and everything in between.

Edward Little senior Giles Paradie. Adam Robinson/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

Giles Paradie – Edward Little RB/LB

What are your goals this season?

I want the team to go as far as it possibly can. It’s not about personal goals, it’s where we go as a team and how far we can get ourselves.

What kind of music do you listen to?

We do listen to music as a team in the locker room. Probably our favorite thing to listen to in the locker room is Lil Baby, a lot of rap music. Last year it was kind of old stuff, this year it’s hard trap music.

Do you have any plans after Edward Little?

I plan to get my real estate license, and plan to do that. I plan to go to a four-year school to get a business degree. I want to play either football or baseball.

Which do you like better?

If I had to pick I would choose baseball because it’s easier on my body, but if it wasn’t for my body I would play football any day of my life. It’s a great way to clear emotion.

It probably helps that you’re so close on the football team, right?

That’s probably my favorite part, when you play football you get 40 more brothers, so it’s pretty awesome. It makes it easier to be confident in the real world.

Favorite hobby outside of football and baseball?

It’s pretty much what I do. I like hanging out with my buddies. Kind of just shooting the breeze. I like going out to eat, just normal teenage stuff.

What do you do pregame? 

Pregame I have my own personal tradition. I go to school, I got to a certain bathroom, I get ready in there, go to the field, and I normally go with a group of guys and we will sit together and pray. Then we’ll stretch and get ready, talk as a team, have a motivational speech by coach Ilungat Mutumbo which hypes us we go out and ready to go.

What do you eat before the game?

I drink a lot of water and I try to eat some chicken. I’ll try to get a good source of protein.

Biggest jokester on the team?

There’s a lot of clowns on the team, I’d probably say Cooper Watkins. He’s probably the funniest guy on the team. He’s just funny. He plays running back and secondary.

What are your team expectations?

I think a lot of people are counting us out because we are playing bigger teams. We haven’t played those guys cause we don’t play in the South but we are going to have to beat them with speed. We might not be the biggest team, but we are going to try to beat them off the ball. I think we shouldn’t be counted out of some games. There are a lot of good teams in the league. I think chemistry is a big thing.

How would you say your team chemistry is this year?

In general, I think it’s very good. We don’t have any guys who don’t get along. For the most part we have good chemistry, we listen to captains and we understand what we have to do. We hope we can keep it really good.