George Washington-Danville head coach Dan Newell expects a lot out of defensive end Marcus Dodson next season. Dodson earned first-team all-Western Valley district honors for his junior season performance last year and made a lot of plays for GW-Danville, but his coach believes he can do even more.

“To me, a Division 1-A player has to dominate at his position,” Newell said. “Marcus did that on occasion last year, but he needs to do it all the time. I think he can reach that level.”

At 6-2, 245 pounds, Dodson made 58 total tackles including 17 solo efforts and 4.5 sacks. He added 3 fumble recoveries, 2 forced fumbles and 2 batted balls his junior season. Dodson shows solid speed, as he was timed in the 40 at 4.8 seconds earlier this year. The 4.8 time is a marked improvement from what he was running late last year, and it’s a result of Dodson’s gains in the weight room.

“I don’t know how fast he’ll get,” Newell said. “He was a little quicker as a sophomore before he gained a bunch of weight. Since that time though, he’s kind of turned his body around. His weight lifting is starting to pay off and he’s starting to see his time come down again, so I’m pretty happy with the way that’s progressing. He’s getting much stronger and he’s made vast improvements – not only on his lifting but his speed. The time that I had on him last season was about a 5.1, but he was 255 pounds. By January, he had dropped 10 pounds and he changed his body a lot from lifting all during the fall and he has dropped his 40 time down from a 5.1 to a 4.8.

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