Giles: Speed, power, opportunity
Published 8:07 pm Saturday, September 6, 2014
Sometimes the numbers really can speak for themselves.
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy junior running back Noah Giles’ personal statistics in the Saints’ Aug. 29 home game clearly spoke loudly in the first week of the
![Running Back: Nansemond-Suffolk Academy junior Noah Giles was an overwhelming force offensively during the Saints’ Aug. 29 game, helping him earn the title of Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2014/09/FB-15-button-dad-29.jpg)
Running Back: Nansemond-Suffolk Academy junior Noah Giles was an overwhelming force offensively during the Saints’ Aug. 29 game, helping him earn the title of Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week.
2014-15 school year’s first Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week contest.
Giles’ incredible performance also gave his team a 47-26 win over Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School.
By the numbers:
4He covered 331 yards and scored four touchdowns, including returning the opening kickoff 85 yards for a score.
4From scrimmage, he accounted for 246 of NSA’s 383 yards gained.
4He had two receptions for 124 yards, and both catches were for touchdowns, one a 67-yarder, the other a 57-yarder.
4He carried the ball six times for 122 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown run.
“I felt like I had a good performance,” Giles said. He later added that he was a little surprised by all of his offensive production, but said, “My family, my teammates believed in me, and I started believing in myself.”
It was family that first helped get Giles interested in football, namely his older brother, Anthony Giles.
“He played football before me, and I just saw him playing it, and I really liked it,” Noah Giles said.
Anthony Giles played at King’s Fork High School and is now a student at Norfolk State University. He has still managed to attend his younger brother’s games this season, though, and HE was excited about the Aug. 29 performance.
“I’m really proud of him,” Anthony Giles said. “I know he puts in a lot of hard work on and off the field, as well as in the classroom.”
He noted his brother has God-given speed, but also said, “I think he’s just blessed with a great opportunity at NSA,” including having a great team around him and strong coaching.
After hearing Noah Giles’ Aug. 29 stats, Saints coach Lew Johnston said, “I don’t want to sound cocky, but I’m not surprised. He’s a combination of speed and power that you don’t see very often on any high school team, public or private.”
Giles said he started playing football in the fifth grade for the Suffolk Titans, switching the next year to another Pop Warner team, the Nansemond-Suffolk Saints.
He began playing for NSA’s varsity team as a freshman in 2012.
“In fact, I had to beg his mom to let him play varsity,” Johnston said, as she wanted him to play junior varsity. “I said, ‘He’s ready right now.’ He started all 12 games.”
He has developed his strength by being what Johnston called “a weight room warrior,” and his speed was on display this past spring when he won the conference championship for the 100-meter dash.
Giles hopes to help his team win the football state championship this year and would like to move to a college football career from there.
His list of preferred college destinations is informed by his academic intention of majoring in aerospace engineering.
Johnston said Giles is “a great student and just a fine young man.”