Wood River's Zack Womack has nose for end zone, high hopes for Oilers' future
WOOD RIVER – East Alton-Wood River running back Zack Womack scored more touchdowns in his final two regular season games than many normally do in an entire season. He crossed the goal line 10 times in those two games.
Zack and his teammates traveled to Carlinville for the Oilers’ first football playoff game in a decade. Zack couldn’t be more excited about his team making the playoffs. The Oilers lost to Carlinville, but even with the loss, returned to Wood River with high hopes and expectations for the future.
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Zack rambled for a 64-yard score in the first quarter and 73 yards for another touchdown in the third quarter in Friday’s playoff contest. He finished the playoff game against Carlinville with 183 yards in 14 carries.
Oilers’ head football coach Gary Herron said Zack Womack is definitely one of the kids who dedicated themselves to the challenge of improving this season.
“He worked hard in the weight room and wanted to be a premier back in the conference,” Herron said. “He has accomplished that this season.”
Zack’s dad, Bob, said he feels his son has a great season and scoring 10 touchdowns the past two weeks was “unbelievable.”
“Zack has had some fantastic accomplishments,” his dad said. “I think he may get the school record for touchdowns. The school record is 34 touchdowns in a career and has 23. He is only a junior.”
Bob Womack said his son works non-stop in school and in athletics. Bob rarely misses an event Zack participates in and said he thinks one of the keys to the Oilers’ success this season was resurrecting the Junior Football League program.
Zack is a solid basketball player and has run a 4.6 40-yard dash on the football field. He is a 100-, 200-meter sprinter on the track team.
Zack Womack said scoring five touchdowns in two consecutive games was something he will never forget. He praised his offensive line for their blocking and said the line is a key reason for his success. Zack is the consummate team player and would much rather talk about the team than his own individual achievements.
“My teammates worked hard three times over the summer in the weight room,” he said. “We started early in the morning.”
Womack said advancing to the playoffs with the other team members was extremely special.
“We entered the playoffs with a three-game winning streak,” he said. “We knew we had to win our last three games in the regular season to make the playoffs and we did that.”
With several solid juniors and underclassmen, Womack looks to continue the gridiron success in 2017.
He said he tries to maintain honor grades and he now believes he wants to play football in college.
“This season changed my mind about playing in college,” he said. Ether after last week’s win was special.
“The police and fire department scored us into town and to the school after our final regular season win,” he said. “When we arrived at school there were all kinds of students, family members and fantastic. That was quite a feeling to be met with such strong support.
Zack had a simple, yet touching way to describes his teammates: “I feel my teammates are like brothers. I don’t think there are two people on the team who don’t like each other.”
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