Between the weather and the emotion surrounding the squad’s season opener, Josh Thacker and the Pickens Academy football team had one of the longest Friday nights of Week 1.
In addition to waiting out a lightning delay and a power outage, the Pirates had to deal with the fact they were without assistant coach Ted Copland, who is battling cancer and was forced to miss his first Friday night in 46 years as a coach.
Despite the delays and stoppage, Pickens Academy used a balanced attack to defeat Ben’s Ford Christian School (La.) 42-12.
“It was really emotional for us without coach Copland,” Thacker said. “The kids played with a lot of emotion because they feel like they owed coach something.”
Chance Britt had 17 carries for 173 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Brant Criswell had two touchdowns.
Pickens Academy will try to go 2-0 at 7 tonight when it plays host to Patrician Academy.
Thacker said Copland, who will be inducted to the Alabama Independent School Association’s Hall of Fame in October, is in his second bout with cancer. He said Copland’s first battle was with lung cancer, but that the cancer returner and spread to his side and then into his spine. He said Copland’s fight has made an impression on the players and has helped them realize there is a lot more to life then football.
“We continue to do things for coach, to remember coach, and coach will always be on our minds,” Thacker said. “We visited him Sunday (at the hospital in Tuscaloosa) and he watched the game on Hudl. You could see the fight he is going through and the fight that is in front of him, and a lot of the emotion the kids played with in the game is for him.”
Thacker said Copland, who has been at Pickens Academy for 15 years and helped with the school’s fast-pitch softball team this past season, started eating solid foods again earlier this week. He said he wasn’t sure if Copland would be discharged in time to be able to attend the team’s game tonight. Even if that doesn’t happen, Thacker knows the Pirates will have Copland in their thoughts as they try to make him proud.
“He means so much to these kids,” Pickens Academy Headmaster Brach White said.
White said Copland is a retired public schools teacher who is in his second stint as a teacher and a coach at Pickens Academy. Copland is a physical education and agricultural studies teacher at the school.
Sylva-Bay Academy at Columbus Christian
Greg Watkins hopes the spark he saw in practice this week carries over to Week 2 for the Rams.
Following a 48-0 loss to Heritage Academy last week in the season opener for both teams, Watkins said Columbus Christian had a “real intense” workout Monday and went to full pads Tuesday, which is something he said the team usually doesn’t do a lot of once the season starts. But Watkins felt the move was necessary after a loss in which he didn’t think the Rams had good focus or tackled well.
“You could see as practice went on the fire kept building,” Watkins said. “It was one of the best practices we have had since I have been here. Hopefully, that will focus, fire, and physicality will carry over to (tonight).”
Columbus Christian, which spent the past two years in Class A in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, has moved up to Class A-AA this season and likely will benefit from a more physical approach if it can maintain that mentality. Watkins said the Rams have struggled to maintain the level of physical play he would like to see from his team. He hopes the practices this week made an impression on the younger players on the team and will help them develop that mentality.
In addition to a different mind-set, Watkins hopes the Rams will clean up the mistakes they made (six turnovers, including three on kickoffs) against the Patriots. He said he wasn’t sure if the rivalry aspect of the game and the fact that it was believed to be the first time the schools played in football added to the nerves, but he said the players have to do a better job of being focused.
“We can’t have the turnovers or the drives down the field and not finish,” Watkins said. “Hopefully this week we will finish some of those drives and do a better job on defense reading our keys and wrapping up once we get to the play.”
Delta Streets Academy at Hebron Christian
David Foster isn’t one for “moral” victories.
But the Hebron Christian football coach had to admit earlier this week there was plenty for him to like from his team’s 64-48 loss to reigning MAIS Eight-Man champion Sharkey-Issaquena last week in Pheba.
After allowing two early scores, Foster said Hebron Christian stayed with the deeper and faster visitors. Senior quarterback Channing Tapley led the Eagles with 219 yards passing and four touchdowns.
“I thought we competed really well,” Foster said. “We’re not in game shape yet. We’re still working on that, and that caused us to have some missed assignments. We competed well and did not quit.”
Foster said Sharkey-Issaquena’s depth (20-21 players compared to Hebron Christian’s 12) and speed, especially to the edges, presented major problems. But he also said Sharkey-Issaquena had its share of difficulty stopping his team, which had a little more than 500 total yards offense.
“We had several good offensive performances,” Foster said. “Our offensive line blocked well.”
Foster believes the loss can be a source of confidence for the Eagles moving forward. He stressed this week to his players that they can’t become overconfident from the strong showing because any team — namely Delta Streets Academy — can beat them. But he feels his senior-laden group will be able to take the lessons learned from the first game and put them to use.
“I told them I am not sure what their limit is but that it is up to you to push to the limit,” Foster said. “They are only limited by what they do. They have the ability to play with anybody. How far they go depends on if they get out there and play.”
Foster said the Eagles will continue to work on their conditioning so they will be able to go longer against deeper teams. He also hopes he will be able to build depth as the season progresses.
North Sunflower Academy at Central Academy
The sigh of relief you heard last week came from Michael Dawkins in Macon.
Of all the first-year head coaches in the area, Dawkins was the most honest in his assessment of his first week.
“It was a weight off my shoulders,” said Dawkins, a volunteer assistant coach with Bryan Ricks and Cole Newman. “It was a total relief not to screw anything up for the kids.”
Dawkins, Ricks, and Newman could breath easier following a 22-8 victory against Park Place Christian. The Vikings used a spirited second half and 140 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Nelson Robbins to give Dawkins, a former assistant coach, his first win as a head coach.
The victory didn’t come easily, though. Dawkins said what he told his players “couldn’t be printed” following a first half in which Central Academy couldn’t find its rhythm. Things changed in the second half, as the Vikings came out with more enthusiasm and exploited matchup advantages players and coaches identified.
“We did OK. We had a couple of things we had to adjust from a coaching standpoint,” Dawkins said. “We didn’t start off well on offense. In the second half we were a different team. The defense did not let them have a first down, and our offense finally kicked in.”
Dawkins hopes the Vikings will continue to grow together and keep communicating. He said he and Ricks encourage the players to provide input about what they see and things Central Academy could exploit during the game. He feels that open relationship between the coaches and players builds confidence.
“I think they appreciate that we listen to them even though we may not agree with them,” Dawkins said. “They feel like they are a part of a whole team instead of a coach and a group of kids. … I think they feel part of something they can not only participate in physically and participate in the development of a win or a loss.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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