Former Gulf Breeze running back Tyler Dittmer can still be seen breaking off long runs in the Panhandle, even if the damage his body has accrued won't let him do it with helmets and pads anymore.
Dittmer announced he was hanging up his football cleats for good last month, ending his collegiate career with Davidson after a single season due to a pair of injury setbacks in a 12-month span.
The former All-State running back and two-time 2,000-yard rusher with the Dolphins has filled the football void with long distance running amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a nod to his changing mentality post-football.
After years chasing glory and records on the gridiron, Dittmer now clears his mind on the open road, free of any pressure to return to past forms.
"I used to hate long-distance running, but that's really all I've been doing since I don't have weights at the house," Dittmer said. "With gyms being closed, lifting isn't an option. So I've picked up long-distance running and I really love it.
"It felt like a weight off my shoulders when I officially called [my football career]. I'd finally moved on."
That past form coincided with a football renaissance of sorts in Gulf Breeze.
Before Joe Brady and Joe Burrow at LSU, there was Bobby Clayton and Tyler Phelps at Gulf Breeze, a coach and quarterback duo transforming Gulf Breeze's offense to championship caliber in the fall of 2016.
Clayton's pass-heavy offense caught Northwest Florida by storm, fueling the Dolphins to a 9-1 regular season finish and beating out Michael Carter's Navarre for the District 2-6A championship.
In the flurry of the Dolphins' passing attack, Dittmer emerged as a 1,000-yard rusher in his sophomore season, a campaign highlighted by a breakthrough 224-yard performance in a heartbreaking playoff loss to Tate.
"I knew that he was going to be good, but I didn't know he'd be as special as he ended up being," Clayton said of Dittmer's early years. "...[The Tate playoff game in 2016] we realized we had something incredibly special. Maybe a once or twice in a lifetime type of player that was going to do a lot of great things."
It was the type of performance – 11.8 yards per carry, 75-yard runs and multiple touchdowns – that would soon become clockwork for Dittmer.
He went for 2,089 yards and 22 touchdowns as the Dolphins' lead playmaker his junior season, a mark he nearly matched with 2,054 yards and 25 scores as a senior. Both seasons he averaged 9.2 yards per carry.
The production put him in contention for area and state rushing crowns alongside more highly-recruited local players like Carter, Pace's Damean Bivins and Escambia's Frank Peasant, each of whom ultimately signed with Division I FBS schools.
While his production matched and surpassed those players in some statistical categories, Dittmer's recruiting profile never quite caught the same attention, a reality that no doubt fueled his running according to Clayton.
"I think he wore that chip on his shoulder that he wasn't recruited the way these other kids were," Clayton said. "He wanted to be as heavily recruited as those guys and I think he should've been.
"...I just could not wrap my mind around why a guy who was Top 5 in the state of Florida, from Pensacola to Key West, was not being more heavily sought after."
Dittmer's final snap of competitive football came far sooner than one would've expected considering his past durability.
A fluky low hit broke Dittmer's ankle on the second snap from scrimmage in the 2018 regular season finale against East Gadsden, sidelining him for the Dolphins' postseason
He rehabbed his ankle injury within four months and was poised to reunite with Phelps at Davidson last year, but suffered a torn ACL during a routine agility drill in Pensacola just days after he felt he'd returned to peak condition.
The devastating setback pushed Dittmer to change his perspective as the game continued to take from his physical well-being.
"I was having real doubts about football and whether I really wanted to do it anymore... If I even loved it anymore," Dittmer said of his mindset after the injury. "...Ultimately, it was at a point where it was a chore to be out there. [Rehab] took a lot of my love for the game out of me.
"[Football] really had been my love my entire life, but I just started having doubts that it was something I wanted to do since I wasn't pursuing the next [professional] level."
There are no regrets for Dittmer, even as he moves on from the sport through which he thrilled thousands in recent years.
In the near future, Dittmer said he plans to continue his school work at Pensacola State while putting together money to finish his undergraduate and graduate degrees in dietetics at Florida or Florida State.
Unlike the holes he used to have to find in opposing defenses, it's a path he can largely control, though he said football has certainly taught him how quickly plans can change.
"I think with high school ball, you're there because you love it," Dittmer said. "When you get to college, it becomes more of a business that you have to combine with more school, more lifting and practices.
"If it weren't for me being 5-7, I probably would've gone somewhere bigger. If you can't pass the eye test, you might not get the looks that you deserve. But God has a different plan for me and I'm just following the direction of that path."
Eric J. Wallace can be reached at ejwallace@pnj.com or 850-525-5087.
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Gulf Breeze great Ty Dittmer charts new path after football retirement - Pensacola News Journal
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