By Scott Plaster
Atkins HS Publisher
If anyone had any doubts about Atkins HS’ Garrison Dibble, they were shattered in the 2025 Navy All-American Football Bowl on Saturday, January 11. In the biggest game of the year against the best players in the country, Dibble did what Dibble does best, recording two sacks in the first half and was even interviewed at halftime on the nationally televised broadcast.
According to Yahoo Sports, Dibble used ”his strong hands to his advantage and closed off the edge on some quarterbacks with mobility – and did so on money downs both times.” In tight back-and-forth action, the West team held off the East team with a final score of 13-7 in the game, held in San Antonio, Texas. Dibble was moved from defensive end to defensive tackle in the second half and did not get a sack to tie the all-time All-America game sack record of 3. In addition, due to the nature of the game, players were continually rotated in and out.
After leading the nation this year with an incredible 31 sacks, Dibble made the All-American roster and in the game’s 25-year history is the first recruit to make the team from the US Naval Academy, where he has committed to attend on scholarship in the fall.
“We are extremely proud of Garrison. He has represented Atkins well during his four years,” said Leslie Long-Stutts, Atkins Athletic Director. “He is the first athlete at Atkins to compete in an All-American Game of any kind. We wish him the best of luck at Navy.”
"I'm just super excited," Dibble said before the game. "Many people don't get this opportunity — so I'm happy to be here. It feels great. There aren't many people from North Carolina — so it feels great to represent my hometown and Atkins." With only about 100 players from the entire country on the roster, Dibble represented not just Winston-Salem and Atkins, but the entire Piedmont NC region.
Proud mother Laura Dibble said, “"We owe all the staff at Atkins a huge thank you for his development both on and off the field." And on and off the field is where Dibble has excelled his entire high school career. At Atkins, Dibble is not just a football player and an athlete, but is what many call a “Scholar Athlete.”
Dibble doesn’t just do well in school, but his work ethic and dedication has helped him excel at Atkins, a STEM magnet school that is one of the standout schools in the WSFCS school system, with a NC Report Card grade of “A” on the most recent DPI report, as well as earning the “Top School in NC” distinction as the NCASA Joe Childers Scholastic Cup winner for nine years in a row.
With a weighted 3.96 GPA, Dibble’s course load this year includes honors classes and advanced placement classes in Civil Engineering and Architecture, Calculus, and Environmental Science. As he said, “A lot of players that are good at football couldn’t get into the Naval Academy. Atkins has prepared me by giving me a great education and I couldn’t have done it without my teachers and the rest of the staff.”
“Garrison is a great student, but better yet, he is also a great person,” said Economics teacher Michelle Lyons at the Career Center HS (Dibble is a student at Atkins, but also takes courses at the Career Center HS). “You can always tell when Garrison is not in class, he brings an energy that is infectious and has a great sense of humor. But he also knows when to get work done, and he does it well,” she said.
His AP Calculus teacher has similar sentiments. “He is a natural when it comes to mathematics and analytical thought,” Career Center teacher John Mitchell said. “He has been very successful overall in my class. I tuned in to the game and saw his amazing performance, as well as his halftime interview.”
Career Center teacher Andrea Knudson agreed, saying, “I love having Garrison in my APES class. He is a part of one of the best classes a teacher could ask for. He has shown himself to be someone who is not only intelligent and talented, but also has a really good heart; which is to say that he is kind, thoughtful, empathetic, and compassionate,” said Knudson. In Greg Downing’s Digital Electronics class at Atkins, “Gary was a natural when it came to analyzing Boolean Algebra and logic circuits.”
“My idea of a student athlete is someone who takes care of academics first and then takes care of sports. Excelling at both is what makes someone a model student athlete,” Dibble said.
Dibble said his journey in football started with his older brother Joseph, whom he said was “vital to my success.” Ironically, many teachers and students who knew them when they were both at Atkins called them “big Dibble” and “little Dibble,” even though Garrison weighs in at 250 pounds and is 6’4”. His brother is the one who introduced him to weightlifting and football drills.
How is Garrison Dibble so good at sacking quarterbacks? He said he logs hours of practice doing drills with real-game scenarios and many days of work outside of the regular school practices.
According to Atkins Head Football Coach Johmar Barringer, Dibble joins a long line of successful players he has coached, including several NFL players and a number of college players.
Dibble said, “Coach Barringer made this all possible for me. I definitely would not have been able to do this without him. His support is very appreciated.”
The next chapter in his football journey will be the Naval Academy, and now Dibble has his sights set on the NFL. With his hard work and determination, no one has any reason to doubt that this dream will come true.