Middle school football players provide hope
There’s reason for passionate enthusiasm when it comes to the middle school football team.
There’s reason to glance at the Pioneers’ 7-0 record and think this is a group of players primed for success at the high school level.
There’s reason to believe this will be the middle school team that takes years of football distress signals and transforms those SOS calls into a high school squad with competitive fire.
There’s reason to have those thoughts, and many more, when the middle school football team is still unbeaten heading down the season’s home stretch. This is a team which has not only won, it has usually won big, like Tuesday’s 21-0 victory over J.D. Jackson Middle School from Winchester.
“These kids practice hard. They hit each other in the mouth,” said coach Jeff Watson. “Then they go out and play like they practice. It’s a great group.”
That’s certainly refreshing news for a community that hasn’t savored many victorious Friday nights of high school football recently. And every year it seems to be the same familiar refrain when it comes to the middle school program.
The song goes something like this:
“Just wait,
Oh, just wait
Till these middle school players get to high school
Cause they will be good,
Oh they’ll be darn good!”
The problem with that song is it’s seldom been true, but that doesn’t keep Warren County football fans from singing the same tune every year.
Only this year, there’s reason to believe it will be different. With a 7-0 middle school team overflowing with talent – and a hard-hitting mentality – this group of seventh and eighth grade boys appears primed to make a high school impact.
Tailback Justin Bouldin has rushed for 800 yards already this year – and he’s averaging around 10 yards a carry. Quarterback Kyle Mullican is gritty. There’s speed with players such as Andy Southard, Chase Officer and Lane McCoy.
Seventh-graders Morgan Wilcher and Casey Dunn have been standouts in the trenches. Fellow linemen Toby Watts and Daniel Boyd don’t shy away from contact, and neither does fullback Brandon Rich.
This group even comes complete with a kicker. Strong-legged Tony Garibaldi has made kicks from 40 yards away in practice, and that’s from a middle school athlete.
Perhaps the most prominent factor is these middle school players are learning how to win. Coming off a 6-2 record last year, this team is 13-2 in its last 15 games. It’s experienced three straight winning seasons.
An old saying when it comes to athletics is that tradition never graduates. Now, at long last, Warren County is sending football players with a winning tradition to the high school. We believe it will pay off.