{"id":868352,"date":"2026-08-25T22:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T22:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868352\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T22:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T22:44:15","slug":"football-star-of-the-week-jd-render-is-a-two-way-playmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868352\/","title":{"rendered":"Football star of the week: JD Render is a two-way playmaker &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">No matter where he lines up, JD Render makes an impact. The LaGrange High football player started his senior season with a bang last Friday, racking up five tackles, a sack, an interception, and a rushing touchdown to help lead LaGrange to a 28-9 victory over Newnan.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">\u201cIt feels great to get back out there,\u201d Render said. \u201cYou could feel the energy in the air when you walked into the stadium. There were no first-game jitters or anything. We were ready to ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Render set the tone on defense for the Grangers. As one of only a handful of returning starters on that side of the ball, Render has established himself as a leader.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">\u201cI just knew that we needed more in that second half,\u201d Render said. \u201cWe had to finish them, and I took it as I needed to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Simply put, Render is one of the fastest kids in Troup County. While mainly a defensive player, LaGrange head coach Matt Napier saw a chance to use the playmaking senior as a chess piece before the season even started.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">\u201cHe is the fastest guy in our area code right now,\u201d Napier said in late July. \u201cHe can take any touch to the house. He has that kind of speed, so we&#8217;re excited about him. He&#8217;s fitting in that receiver role, that running back type role, and he&#8217;s going to be a tremendous player for us on both sides of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter where he lines up, JD Render makes an impact. The LaGrange High football player started his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-868352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}