‘They rely on me a lot.’ This Carver star is a quiet force on the court and the gridiron
Carver’s D.J. Riles does not talk much.
However the sophomore who starts at quarterback on the Tigers’ football team and point guard on the basketball squad, plays two positions that require the most communication.
In football, he’s tasked with relaying the play call to his offense, then making any checks or audibles at the line of scrimmage. In basketball, he’s the point man, in charge of leading the offense and commanding the Tigers’ scoring attack.
Yet Riles roams the halls of Carver High with both hands in his red hoodie’s front pocket. He grins ear-to-ear when passersby greet him, and each time he begins to answer a reporter’s question.
“He’s a natural leader when it comes to his play,” Carver head basketball coach Warren Beaulah said. “But he’s not very vocal. We just want him to be a little more vocal. It’s not quite natural for him.”
The talking will likely come with age, Beaulah said. Riles is only a 10th grader. But that’s something the Tigers can live with, because the results he has produced are tough to argue against.
COMMANDING THE HUDDLE
Riles, the Ledger-Enquirer’s first-team All-Bi-City quarterback in 2019, sat behind former Tigers quarterback Jaylen Joyner last year, when the Tigers went 9-2 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. This season, in his first year as a full-time starter, Riles passed for 1,699 yards, 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He ran for another 653 yards and six touchdowns as the Tigers made it to the second round of the GHSA class 4A playoffs.
Carver won region 1-4A for the first time since 2015. The Tigers compiled a one-loss regular season, scored 40 or more points in seven games and were the only team in the region to finish unbeaten in the region.
Carver head football coach Corey Joyner said after Carver’s Heritage Bowl win over Spencer on Aug. 30 that Riles had “great clock management,” something that doesn’t come easy in football. That type of management requires maturity, often beyond a young quarterback’s years.
“I’ve had to mature a lot,” Riles said. “They rely on me a lot, being the quarterback and the point guard -- the most important parts of a team. So you’ve got to mature fast and be a leader. ... As a quarterback, it’s basically your team, because you’ve got the ball most of the time.”
OWNING THE HARDWOOD
Beaulah called Riles a “natural leader by his play.” But Beaulah last season wanted one key aspect of the then-freshman’s game to improve.
“Mainly his scoring,” Beaulah said. “D.J. hasn’t really reached his peak. If he’s aggressive, we’re a pretty decent team. If he’s laid back and passive, we’re beatable. He kind of makes us go.”
When Riles goes, the Tigers offense really goes.
On a Carver offense that averages 56 points per game, Riles leads in scoring with just over 14 points per game, and adds an average of six assists and four rebounds per game. He has scored 198 of the team’s 899 points, good for a little more than 22 percent of the team’s total scoring output, according to MaxPreps.
On Jan. 21, Riles led the Tigers with 19 points in their 68-53 win over Westover, a game that could go a long way in determining region standings: With Westover’s loss to Dougherty this past Friday, the Tigers own second place in the region, and can effectively seal a No. 2 spot by beating the Patriots on Jan. 31.
“This year, I’ve had to pay attention more,” Riles said. “So I can know every position, know where everybody is supposed to be, everything. You’ve got to operate the whole team, point where they’ve got to be. If you don’t do it right, it’s not going to function right.”
GOING FOR ANOTHER RING
Riles ran toward Carver’s cheerleaders, and jumped and yelled as the final buzzer sounded in last year’s 4A state championship, which the Tigers won 58-55 over Americus-Sumter. It was the program’s second title and first one in 48 years.
Riles smiled wide and said it felt “like a movie,” where everything moved in slow motion.
“It was a surreal moment,” Riles said.
Riles knows Carver’s girls team, which hasn’t lost since Jan. 10 and should be the No. 1 seed in the region tournament, has what it takes to win back-to-back state titles. He thinks the boys can do it too.
Another win over Westover would be a solid start and the Tigers will need every bit of Riles’ quiet confidence to make that happen.
“You’ve got to be special,” Beaulah said of Riles’ confidence on the court. “And that’s D.J. Riles.”
