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Young athletes are being pushed and encouraged to specialize in a specific sport while they are still growing. Freshman Davis Moncus is bucking those trends and is a rising star on the diamond and the turf as he has enjoyed a bright start to his high school athletic career. 

“I started playing every sport I could as soon as I could start playing,” he said. “I don’t have a main sport because I don’t want to just be good at one sport and play another. I want to be good at both.”

After a self-described slow start to the season, Moncus has been on a tear as of late. He drove in the winning run in the sixth inning to give Troup its first win of the season against Cambridge. He took a bases-loaded walk to give the Tigers a walk-off win over Pike County and drove in three runs in an 8-4 win over Northgate last time out for the Tigers. He already has a season’s worth of highlight-worthy plays and he is through just 10 games of his freshman campaign.

“I have been in big moments before even if they haven’t been at this level, so I just try and remain calm,” Moncus said. “I just go out there and trust myself to make a play when my team needs me to.”

Moncus feels most at home in center field but is outstanding defensively regardless of where you line him up in the outfield. The freshman is so talented and versatile that he can be deployed just about anywhere on the diamond and he will find a way to be successful.

“I feel like wherever the coach asks me to play,” Moncus said. “I tell coaches all the time that I just want to be in the field, I don’t care where.”

Despite not calling himself a natural pitcher, Moncus can even slot in on the mound and excel. Despite pitching just 5 ⅓ innings this season, Moncus has struck out 11 batters on just four hits. 

“I love pitching, I love how much different it is than when I’m in the outfield,” Moncus said. “When coach calls my name to go out there and pitch, I’m feeling good.”

Moncus has been making waves as a young athlete in Troup County long before he got to the high school level. He was a star at Long Cane, where he was named the MVP of the Elite Classic All-Star game in Atlanta as an eighth-grade football player.

A football field feels just as much like a home as a baseball diamond for Moncus. He played sporadically on offense, catching two passes for 49 yards while being a regular contributor on special teams. 

“I thought I was going to be on the sideline all season,” Moncus said with a muffled chuckle. “I was a little nervous at first, but the more reps I got the more comfortable I started to feel and I finally found my groove.”

Moncus is poised to take an even bigger role in the Troup offense as a sophomore. With four of the team’s top five pass catchers from 2023 graduating, Moncus will likely find himself in a starting role.

Wide receiver is the most natural position for Moncus despite him putting together an electric career as the Long Cane quarterback.

“You have to be able to accept the fact that the ball won’t always be in your hands anymore, but you can still make plays for your team,” he said. “There are other players on the team that are going to want the ball too and you just have to fill the role that the team needs you to do.”

Even when he was at Long Cane prepping for life at Troup High, Moncus had coach Tanner Glisson in his corner. Now, Glisson is his head coach for both baseball and football.

“He’s a really hard worker and coaches you really hard too, but he knows how to get you charged up and when to be soft on you,” Moncus said.

Moncus’ star is already shining bright. But he is far from a finished product. An exciting prospect for the Troup athletic department, but what stands out about Moncus is his attention to academics as well. A straight-A student and a promising young athlete rarely are wrapped into the same package, but the Tigers have one in their freshman phenom.