Georgia Tech guard Shamire Devine played a career-high 41 snaps against Pittsburgh Saturday out of 76 total. With improved conditioning complementing his size and skillset, the redshirt freshman from Tri-Cities High is more and more becoming part of the picture for the Yellow Jackets' offense. I'm working on a story about him for Saturday's paper and myajc that will go into his considerable interest in computers, but thought his weight battle would make for interesting reading.
Q: You must feel like you're making progress. At the beginning of the year, you were hardly playing at all.
A: I've felt like I made a lot of progress, from the beginning of the year to now. And then from getting here (on campus as a freshman) to now, I've made tremendous progress.
Q: What's the difference from the start of the year to now?
A: Start of the year to now, I've lost 20 pounds, got a little bit faster. That's just how it was.
Q: You lost 20 pounds from when?
A: Mid-summer to now. And then last year to now is 40 pounds. Last year when I first got here in the summer to now is 40 pounds.
Q: How much do you weigh now?
A: Right now, I'm 354 and trying to get down to 345.
Q: How hard is it to lose weight?
A: It's pretty hard. You'll run and you'll be down by the end of the week and then after the game's over, you go home and sleep in and then you put back on three pounds or something like that. But that's about it.
Q: Is that from going home and eating Mom's cooking?
A: That's from sleeping all day and only eating a sandwich and Gatorade.
Q: That's tough. I imagine people look at you and think, 'He can lose weight without a problem.'
A: It is pretty tough. I run extra, I lift weights more. I can't eat the nice, hearty steak that everyone else gets. But I'm proud to lose it. I'm getting healthier.
Q: It must make you able to play longer and play better.
A: It does. Instead of me going and getting tired, I got and get a little bit tired but then I can recover faster.
Q: When do guys eat steak, like after the game?
A: It's an o-line thing. We usually go out and get steak Thursdays. Don't tell (offensive line) Coach (Mike) Sewak.
Q: What do you get?
A: I usually either get a salad or some chicken.
Q: And I imagine the guys give you a hard time about it.
A: Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I really didn't like salads at all when I first got here. I used to have to put bacon and everything on it just to force me to eat a piece of lettuce. But now it's a little bit easier with some Caesar, some croutons.
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