Bishop Dwenger’s Devon Tippmann has been named one of Indiana Football Digest’s Prime Time 25 players. The Prime Time 25 can be found in the latest edition of Indiana Football Digest, which was made available for purchase today. Tippmann posted the news to Twitter this afternoon. He has played multiple positions at Dwenger; including running back and linebacker.
“He’s a coach’s dream,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “No one works harder than Devon. He’s highly coachable. He loves the game. He comes from a great family of football players with his dad and uncle and his brother who was a big part of our state championship in 2018. It’s been a tremendous joy to coach Devon on and off the field. He’s not only a great football player, but he’s a tremendous student-athlete. He’s great in the classroom and a tremendous leader for us.”
Tippmann was a key contributor in that state championship run. He was the Saints’ leading rusher racking up 1238 yards, averaging 6.0 yards per carry, and scoring six touchdowns. He became the second Dwenger sophomore to rush for over 1,000 yards. In 2019, Tippmann was the Saints’ leading tackler with 106. He put up 431 rushing yards while sharing the load in the ground game with other backs such as Patrick Finley and Toby Eke. However, his love for Dwenger football is about more than just his stats.
“I really just love the way Dwenger does things and it makes me want to work hard for them, for the coaches and for all my teammates,” Tippmann said.
This past season, Tippmann stepped in for linebacker TJ McGarry who had graduated the previous spring. McGarry was Dwenger’s top tackler in 2018 with 90 total tackles.
“It was a very big challenge; [those were] big shoes to fill,” Tippmann said. “He was a great leader and a great player also. And I learned from him my sophomore year, so I kind of just wanted to work hard for him. We’re still in contact. He checks in every once in a while.”
Devon Tippmann comes from a football family. His older brother TJ and his cousin Joe were both seniors on the 2018 team. Devon was a sophomore that year.
“[I was] always talking to them, [we were] always competing against each other, so that just makes every one of us better,” Devon said.
At this point, Tippmann has drawn the eye of at least one college football program. He currently has an offer from Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. He posted the news to his Twitter account on Wednesday evening.
“It makes me feel a lot better, especially during this tough time,” Tippmann said. “Hearing what they had to say and what they had to offer just makes me feel better about myself and I just gained more confidence from it.”
Tippmann has one more season of high school football left; something that both he and Coach Garrett are heavily looking forward to.
“I’m just excited to play with my grade, my current grade because we’ve been playing together since we were third grade,” Tippmann said. “So I’m just excited to be a part of the brotherhood and the family and hopefully get some wins.”
“He’s healthy. He’s put on some really good weight; gaining a lot of strength and speed,” Garret said. “He’s working his tail off. He’ll likely be in a very key leadership role once again on both sides of the ball. I’m looking forward to it. It’s hard to believe it’s already here. It just seems like yesterday we were giving him the ball on offense and making a trip down to Lucas Oil [Stadium].”
During the Coronavirus pandemic, high school teams have not been able to get together and practice as a team. However, Tippmann has still been able to stay in shape; partly by using the gym at his house, but also because of the workouts his coaches have sent to him and his teammates.
“Our coaching staff did a very good job at sending out workouts every day, some weight-lifting, and they give examples of what you can use and then some agility stuff on top of that,” Tippmann said. “So that was a big help for the workout aspect of it.”
