By SAMUEL HOOD – Sports Editor
On Friday, Aug. 29, the Clarke Central High School varsity football team lost its season opener of the regular season against Hart County High School at Billy Henderson Stadium.
16-0.
This was not the final score of the Clarke Central High School varsity football team’s season opener against Hart County High School on Aug. 29 at Billy Henderson Stadium, but rather the number of freshman that the Gladiators dressed out, 16, compared to that of the Bulldogs, who dressed none.
“Anytime you have a bunch of young guys playing in their real first game, you know something is going to happen,” CCHS head football coach Ahren Self said. “The lights came on and they freaked out a little bit.”
Self was tasked with playing freshmen at various positions due to injuries to key players, namely junior wide receiver Desmond Sorrells, senior tight end Qua-Von Scott and senior offensive lineman Raphael Bryan. Self, however, feels the Gladiators still had a chance to compete in their home opener in which they were defeated by HCHS 34-14.
“(The team) committed way too many mistakes. We gave them 21 points in the first half that they didn’t earn,” Self said. “If we wouldn’t have made so many stupid mistakes early on, we would have been alright.”
Despite the loss, Self refuses to allow injuries to stop the progress of the team.
“We are going to find somebody else. Each week we’ve got to play and it doesn’t matter if somebody goes down. We’ve got to find a replacement,” Self said.
Junior defensive back Rayshawn McCall, the only upperclassman starter in the Gladiator secondary, feels that the he and other leaders on the team are responsible for mentoring the new players to the football program.
“I talk to these guys everyday and treat them like my brothers. I just take them under my wing and teach them what was taught to me,” McCall said. “I try to make sure that they are doing good at school and outside of school. Make sure they keep their heads up.”
Mistakes made in the loss led to visible frustration on the sidelines, but McCall says that it will provide a needed lesson for the team.
“From this game, I learned that through hard times you have to keep going, through adversity you have to keep going and teamwork is the best way to go. You can’t do it by yourself,” McCall said.
Self says the team will learn from the Gladiators’ first contest as they look next to playing Lanier High School on Sep. 5 at Billy Henderson Stadium.
“Even though you want to win every game, it was a non-region game. Now we can learn from these mistakes and hopefully we will correct them and they won’t happen again,” Self said.
