| Calhoun's football future on display Thursdays and Mondays
By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
Some Calhoun folks are worried about the future of the Red Devils high school football team.
And not without reason following a 72-0 whipping at the hands of St. Marys last Friday night to run the team's losing streak to four games.
Before abandoning hope for the future Red Devils people should take a little time out on Thursday and Monday evenings.
Thursday is when the middle school team plays and it has been a good season despite a 2-4 record.
The four losses can be explained very quickly:
- Spencer Middle School: A bronchitis attack to Calhoun's ace running back early in the game pretty much doomed the Red Devils, especially since Spencer is a pretty good team.
- Gilmer Middle School: Quite simply put Calhoun played a bad game its worst of the season and Gilmer was good enough to take advantage of that and put the Red Devils away.
- Braxton Middle School: Forget it. They could play 10 times and Braxton would be 10-0. The lopsided score - 40-6 in the first quarter when the game was called by lightning - was not exactly a good indicator of the difference between the two teams as everything went right for Braxton. But Braxton is a better team.
- Clay Middle School: Calhoun was severely hampered by key players not being available as Clay was able to zero in on Calhoun running back Seth Moore the entire contest.
Teams have to play the game with the hand they were dealt (sick players, unavailable players, etc.) but Calhoun could just as easily now be 5-1 instead of 2-4.
Chuck Hicks and his staff (Tim Moore, Zach Moore and Jacob Haught) have worked hard on conditioning and toughness - both physical and mental - and they players the middle school sends to the high school in the next few years will be contributors.
The other, and more immediate impact group is the junior varsity team which now has a record of 2-3 after winning its second in a row with a 22-0 victory over the Roane reserves.
In that game last year's middle school phenom Johnny Taylor scored three touchdowns after being shut in games leading up to Monday.
The reserves are primarily freshmen and sophomores and are competing against freshmen and sophomores from the other school unlike at the varsity level where they have been forced to play against juniors and seniors because the Red Devils are so young.
When competing against players their own age the Calhoun reserves more than hold their own.
Calhoun did not have a reserve program for the last two years and the inexperience caused by not having the program of guys moving into varsity spots was quickly seen.
With the reserve program up and running again and a strong middle school program the future looks a lot better than the 72-0 debacle of last Friday night at St. Marys.
The season is quickly winding down but there is still time to check out the younger kids and perhaps get a little bit enthusiastic about the future.
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