MOULTRIE – JJ Peterson does his talking on the football field. And when JJ’s talked, people listened all over Georgia and into Alabama, Florida and as far away as Ohio and Oregon.

The U.S. Army heard him also and on Wednesday brought to Colquitt County High School his jersey and helmet symbolic of the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl Presented by American Family Insurance. Peterson, widely considered the best outside linebacker recruit in the nation, is one of about 100 high school seniors selected for the All-Star Game – the East roster specifically – taking place at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Jan. 6 and televised by NBC.

While Peterson himself had little to say – the biggest being a thank-you to his Packer teammates who joined him in getting Colquitt County High to Saturday’s GHSA Class 7A championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium – the one person who knows the most about his athletic career said plenty about how Peterson grew up into the prospect he is. Head coach Rush Propst nurtured the talents of numerous Division I players from Alabama to his last 10 years in Moultrie. In Peterson he’s seen somebody do things in a football game unheard of, but he also knew the right approach to take in helping this youngster live up to the potential.

“The first time I saw JJ was in elementary school,” said Propst. “He was tall, very athletic, I thought a very happy kid. He was in the 3rd grade when I got here. I remember watching him in youth ball. You just knew he was going to be special as each year went by. Middle school ball is when he really started showing up.

“You don’t have to be a bright individual to know when a kid’s that age that he’s got some special athletic ability. The question is going to be whether he was going to get it developed. It’s an everyday process, an everyday battle with a lot of kids that you have to deal with. It’s in every community, not just Moultrie. It’s everywhere I’ve ever been. You see great athletic ability, possibly NFL talent, and you do everything in your power to try to put him in that direction of success.

“So many times it’s easy to say it’s hard. There’s issues and factors that may determine that it’s tougher, but JJ Peterson to me was one I knew deep down if we could get this child headed in the right direction and graduated and headed to a university … he’s an NFL talented kid.”

Yes, Propst admits there’s no guarantee of getting into college football, let alone the National Football League. Peterson has been to the combines for evaluation of his talent. Propst said the one that stood out the most was done by former New England Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest.

“He told me after working him out in Atlanta a couple of times that he’s one of the top kids he ever worked out,” said Propst. “I thought that was pretty high praise. I said, ‘Do you think he can play in the NFL?’ He said, ‘Rush, he’s a first-rounder.’

“There’s still a long way to go. He’s got a lot of things he’s still got to develop.”

In the same vein of Peterson showing up during middle school football, Propst said he’s seen something different in Peterson over just the last five weeks of the 2017 season. That goes back to when the Packers lost in double overtime to Lowndes, which put them No. 3 out of Region 1-7A, and continued through the first four rounds of the state playoffs, all Colquitt County victories in the suburban Atlanta area from Cobb to Gwinnett counties.

“The first nine weeks, he had not played very well,” said Propst. “We didn’t handle ourselves very well after we lost the Tift game (38-35 on last second field goal at home). From that moment on, he and a bunch of them flipped it around. Although we lost to Lowndes, we lost with some class, then went forward and did all the right things to get where we are right now.”

Perhaps there were better pieces of evidence for Peterson’s commitment to team success from his reactions to others’ accomplishments. He could be seen hoping with excitement over quarterback Steven Krajewski’s big first-down keeper run during the quarterfinal game at Archer High. The following week at practice, where the pattern is for teammates to gather around kicker Ryan Fitzgerald for his last and longest field goal try, Peterson is the one making the most noise of encouragement getting as close as he possibly can.

When Peterson does finish his playing career for Colquitt County on Saturday, he can be all about academics and making his choice of colleges. The attention, Propst said, began in his sophomore season when the Packers went undefeated and won state for the second year in a row. This was a team with very few sophomore contributions since there were 40 seniors, but one 10th grader did make his mark at important times.

“He had a lot to do with us winning on defense,” said Propst. The story goes that, as Colquitt County was preparing for the semifinals at Mill Creek High, coaches made adjustments to the scheme involving Peterson, and those adjustments continued during the game. Propst said that’s what shut Mill Creek down when the home team tried to rally. Propst said it was a three-point game, Keil Pollard scored on a quick screen pass, and then the adjustment was made effectively ending the game.

“We did not know where we would play him,” said Propst about the time Peterson entered the varsity program. “Nobody could decide whether he’s a linebacker or a defensive end. The middle school coaches put him at defensive end because he could sack the quarterback all the time.

“He is definitely a linebacker in college football. The guy can run. He’s 235, 240 pounds right now. He runs 4.5. He’s got all the physical tools. Explosive speed.”

Propst will mention Peterson in the same breath as Ja’Quain Blakely who went to Tennessee, Dee Walker who went to Arkansas or Pollard, who went to South Carolina. He said players in metropolitan areas can go to specialized trainers that Packer players don’t have access. But he feels Packer players are well prepared here to move on as these aforementioned guys did.

“He’s learning a lot in the recruiting process,” said Propst. “Oregon was high on that list. Then (head coach Willie) Taggart leaves (for Florida State). Where does that put Oregon in his recruiting mindset?

“JJ is uncomfortable around cameras, uncomfortable around interviewing. He doesn’t call a lot of people back. JJ’s a reserved child who really likes to stay to himself.”

Yes, Propst has seen Peterson see the name and number of a well-known college coach show up on his phone and not take the call.

“It’s not a show of disrespect,” he said. “He likes his private time. He likes doing the simple things in life. I’ve been around a lot of kids and heard the criticisms and heard the good things that have been said.

“That kid has told me and my wife and a lot of these coaches here ‘Thank you’ and ‘I love you’ … I would say he’s probably told me that 50 times in the last three months. Unsolicited. What kind of person does that if they don’t have something good in their heart?

“Kids are kids and they all need structure and discipline. Me and my wife spent a lot of good times with him this summer. I love him the way I love all these kids.

“I think the part of coaching that gets left out … we got out of practice last night at 7. Ty Leggett’s walking by my office with his head down a little bit. I didn’t think he had a bad practice, but I called him in and said ‘What’s going on?’ We talked, and before he left it was the same thing. I think what gets lost is the intervention you have with kids. That’s what I’ll miss the most, and taking the one that you say can’t make it or won’t make it and try to save a few. Can’t save them all. But that’s what this program has become. Winning games obviously helps and is a lot of fun, but if these kids take these scholarships and go stay in a structured environment another four years and get a college degree, to me it’s hard to be successful without a college degree.”