A Wildcat or a cheetah? Speedy wide receiver carrying Richmond Hill in Class 7A.

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When Richmond Hill was reclassified to 7A and assigned to Region 1, the forecast for success in football brought the doubters out of the woodwork.

The Wildcats and Valdosta, which also moved up, joined Coffee County, Lowndes County and Camden County to form one of the strongest regions in the state.

While Richmond Hill had become a force in Region 3-6A, many saw the move up as a quantum leap in strength of competition.

That perception was not lost on Wildcats wide receiver Ravon Grant, Jr., and his teammates. But don’t include them among the naysayers. They embraced the challenge.

“I’m not worried,” Grant said in a preseason interview. “It’s better competition for me.”

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Seven games into the season, Grant hasn’t seen anything out of the Wildcats (3-4) to make him think they won’t be competitive. Richmond Hill suffered a narrow 21-14 loss to Camden County in its Region 1-7A debut on Oct. 7, with Grant catching a touchdown pass.

The Wildcats play the rest of their region rivals - Valdosta, Lowndes County and Colquitt County - in their next three games.

“We’re not playing our best right now, but we’ve got a lot of time left to prepare and get ourselves together for the next few games,” Grant said. “We’ve just got to prepare better. We’ve definitely got the talent. We have just got to execute.

“We haven’t been doing that to our standards.”

With 15 seniors, Richmond Hill is a sophomore-dominated team but with seven games under the team's belt, Grant says youth is no excuse.

“They aren’t sophomores anymore,” Grant said. “We’ve all got to step up.”

To their credit, the Wildcats have played a difficult schedule. The combined record of their first seven opponents is 25-11 with unbeaten Ware (4-0) ranked No. 1 in Class 5A. Jenkins (1-4) is the only team with a losing record.

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Grant is thriving as the fleet wideout and is an important cog in a  productive offense. He went into the Camden game leading the region in receptions with 39 for 465 yards.

Quarterback Ty Goldrick has over 1,000 yards passing to lead the region. Zion Gillard’s 698 rushing yards.

If the Wildcats are to make the state playoffs for the seventh straight year, much will depend on Grant’s play, Coach Matt LeZotte said.

“Ravon’s a tremendous ballplayer,” LeZotte said. “The things Ravon’s done this year in comparison to past years is he’s created with the ball in his hands.

“He’s done a great job catching the ball but it’s the stuff he’s done after he caught it. It’s how difficult he’s become to tackle after he’s got the ball in his hands. It’s made him extremely valuable to us.”

Grant had a difficult summer as he recuperated from a broken foot he suffered in the spring. It cost him camp time and exposure to college scouts. He currently has offers from Austin Peay and Fordham with Chattanooga and Georgia Southern showing interest.

“Not being able to camp this summer has put his back up against the wall recruiting-wise,” LeZotte said.

“He’s the best receiver of any team we’ve played yet. Maybe not the best player on the field, but the best receiver.

“Now he’s going to have the platform to go and make plays against some of the best talent in the state. We’re going to rely heavily on him to do that.”

After a slow start, Grant has come to life.  He had 13 catches for 125 yards in a 28-27 overtime win over New Hampstead (4-1) and then burned Baker County, Fla., (3-1) as he had eight receptions for 219 yards and two touchdowns.

Grant said he has been timed at 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash but LeZotte pointed out that’s now an archaic measurement.

“He’s just at under 21 miles per hour,” LeZotte said. “We time with miles per hour now. It’s a language the colleges are speaking now because of the GPS tracking of the time and the laser data.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Richmond Hill wide receiver Ravon Grant Jr. helps Wildcats adapt to 7A