By Staff
Kim West
Franklin County Times
Russellville Middle School basketball coach Larry Gilmer describes seventh-grader Logan Ezzell as a class act.
"Logan is a wonderful kid and a class act. He is well-behaved with wonderful parents, and he's a good athlete who makes good grades," said Gilmer. "He played basketball for me and started at linebacker as a seventh-grader for us, and I wish we had a team full of players like him."
Ezzell, a three-sport athlete for the Golden Tigers, grew up playing Little League baseball and youth basketball, but he decided to give football a try for the first time this year.
"The hardest thing about playing football was being one of the younger players, and this was my first year to play," said Ezzell. "I took some good licks from the bigger players on our team, but I'm definitely going to play again next year."
But Ezzell's favorite sport has always been baseball, and his best sports memories come from playing first baseball in the Russellville Little League.
"Winning district three times in a row for Little League All-Stars was a lot of fun," he said.
In addition to playing sports, Ezzell is a top student with a 98.25 average. He also belongs to the school's Scholars Bowl team.
"I'm more proud of him being on the Scholars Bowl team than playing sports because academics will help him more," Gilmer said. "I always tell my players that being an athlete will end some day – whether it's after high school or at 40 years old – so you have to have something else to make a living."
Despite being only 14, Ezzell has already made college plans.
"I want to go to Auburn University, hopefully on a sports or academic scholarship," he said. "I would like to become either an architect or a veterinarian."
Ezzell's favorite subject is science, which isn't surprising since he enjoys experiments and studying animals.
"Science is my favorite because I like animals and the experiments," said Ezzell. "My favorite teachers are Coach Jeff Madden and Mr. Mike McCandless. I had Coach Madden last year for reading, and he's a lot of fun even though we got a lot done at the same time. Mr. Mac is funny, and he knows a lot about science and experiments."
In his spare time, Ezzell is an avid hunter and fisherman, and he has been hunting since he was a toddler.
"I've been hunting since I was two or three years old, and I like going to to Cedar Creek Lake to fish. I also like playing with my little brother and shooting basketball at our house," said Ezzell.
He also enjoys lighthearted movies and listening to different types of music.
"I like stupid movies that have no meaning, like Napoleon Dynamite," said Ezzell, who named fellow baseball and football player Aaron Fisher as his funniest teammate. "I just got an IPod for Christmas, and I've got a bunch of songs on it. I like George Strait, Lynyrd Skynryd and Chris Brown a lot, but I listen to all kinds of music."
He is the son of Terry and Kristie Ezzell, and has one younger brother, Landon, 8, a second-grader at West Elementary.