About The Jenkins County times. (Millen, Ga.) 2023-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2023)
jenkinscountytimes.com The Jenkins County Times Wednesday, November 22, 2023- Page 11 WAR EAGLE S -PfgR T S By Brad Asbury, Sports Editor ... ■% rt if j a / iCS staff to Build a Team" The Times «/«/ BRAD ASBURY pastorbradasbury@gmail.com Under the Bleachers Maybe this week’s Under the Bleachers should be renamed to “From the Press Box.” While I have never really been “under the bleachers,” I have stood in the press box many times in the last few years for the Jenkins County Football team. I have been a PA Announcer, a clock operator, and most recently a radio play-by-play analyst for 106.5 at the Dooly County game. Truthfully, if I were “under the bleachers” I would have missed so much, but from the press box I have seen so much. This week from the press box, I saw more than I ever have seen before! My focus was on the game, as I talked about the game the whole time. What I witnessed was War Eagle Athletics. First, I saw heart, dedication, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Some of the qualities are learned from coaches, teachers, and others who invest in the players, while other of those qualities are just an instinct of the individual. I saw this on every snap of every drive in this game, but also for the whole year. Our players won every game with class, and in the two losses, they walked off with class. They won well and they lost well. They never gave up. They encouraged one another. They showed sportsmanship iey i to the teams they played. On more than one occasion we witnessed a War Eagle help the opposing player in their injury. This is War Eagle Athletics! Second, I saw the coaches. All season long, without fail these players were prepared at the highest level because the coaches put in 100% every day. On Saturday morning, after a win or loss, the coaches were arriving breaking down the night before. Laundry was done and game plans for the next week were made by these same coaches. They arrive to practice early and stay late. They are there before the players in the summer and they will still be there after the season to start retooling for the next season. These are our War Eagles coaches. This is War Eagle Athletics. Third, in every game this season 1 saw fans by the 100s fill the stadiums. They drove hundreds of miles and they filled Roy Head Stadium at every home game. Coach Jason Boynton would issue a call for the fans to come to the home games, and they packed the stadiums. The fans were loud, and they were proud. They outnumbered the Bobcats in Dooly County and in Portal there must have been 1000 plus fans from Jenkins County. They were never out of control; they were there to cheer the War Eagles and did not seek to cause trouble. Our fans are fans of integrity! This is War Eagle Athletics. This season was the winningest season in both softball and football history at Jenkins County High School. The War Eagle Cross Country boys’ team is the Region 3 Cross Country boy s ’ champions, ana they have the boy s ’ individual champion. The boys also had an amazing showing in the state meet with many personal records all season long. An amazing showing by our Girls’ Cross-Country team in the region, which led them to the state cross-country meet with many personal records throughout the season! The Lady War Eagles Softball team had nine players on the first or second team or honorable mention list for all-region. The softball team also has the Region 3 Defensive Player of the Year. The War Eagles Football team boasts the Region 3 offensive player of the year and co-defensive player of the year. Eighteen players were selected for the first or second- team all-region team! This is War Eagle Athletics. Crazy enough, this success was only the beginning. This was only the Fall season. The winter and spring sports are still yet to be played. The winter and spring sports, win or lose, will make us stand and say, “This is War Eagle Athletics.” Coaches, players, and fans, this is only the beginning because This is War Eagle Athletics. We are War Eagles. We are proud. We are tough. And we will not be stopped. It will never be about a game, it will always be about one thing: War Eagle Athletics! ^ Southern Bank CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT SPECIAL Special offer available at: 731 Charles Perry Ave., Sardis, GA 30456 855 Liberty St., Waynesboro, GA 30830 2455 Highway 88, Hephzibah, GA 30815 21 College St., Gibson, GA 30810 706-437-9977 thesouthern.bank *The annual percentage yield (APY) assumes that interest remains on deposit until maturity. APY accurate as of 8/21/2023 and is subject to change at any time and without notice. Personal accounts only. Deposits limited to $230,000. Penalty for early withdrawal. $1,000 minimum balance to open. This is a limited-time offer. FDIC H •» C=3 ' K j il Uff . .. m i m tm. f Left: Coach Hil Johnson, Offensive Coordinator, leads the offense onto the field for pregame warmups Friday night. Photo by Danielle M. Davis. Below: Coach Matt Williams, Special Teams Coordinator and Receivers Coach steps out on the field to call a play with Chuck Sanders, Assistant Head Coach and Athletic Director looks on in the Head Coach Charley Waters has a moment with senior Rob ’Travious Coney before the game. At the end of this season Charley is 46-39 overall as the Head Coach of the War Eagles. He is the second-winningest coach in War Eagle History only a few wins shy of becoming the winningest coach in history! Photo by Danielle M. Davis. background. Photo by Danielle M. Davis. Above: Coach Sweet, the Defensive Line Coach, helps a player up on the field Friday night. Photo by Danielle M. Davis. Left: Coach Jason Boynton, Defensive Coordinator, stands with Ty Boynton (left) and ZZ Wilson (right) after a win over Charlton County in the first round of the playoffs. Photo by Danielle M. Davis. EAGLES Continued from page 1 The dedication of this group of coaches is shown every week. No one will ask more “what-if’ questions than coaches. No one will show up earlier or stay later than the coaches. No one will show up early after a late game as coaches do. No one will plan for a game, practice their players, and at times must neglect important parts of their lives as the coaches do. Coaching is not as easy as suggesting a better way from the stands or screaming at the radio from the chair. The number of times a “fan” wanted the coach fired, the coach had probably already thought, “Am I good enough to even be here?” Yet, the coach flushes all the doubt, the “what ifs,” and “could have beens” and prepares for the next game or the next season. A staff is not built overnight. A staff grows together and as a result builds a team of young men who are men of strength, discipline, and so much more. This past season. the War Eagles added one piece to the coaching staff, former Jenkins County Alumni Roy Clayton. Many of these coaches were together for the last stint Waters had with this team. Waters will close out the 2023 season with a career record of 46-39, and 17-6 this time around. The War Eagles will continue to build a team that succeeds, this is the way Coach Waters has done it year in and year out. A team succeeds on the field, but a team will never be anything but a reflection of their coach. The War Eagles were built by a group of coaches that have taught them leadership, composure, grit, toughness, and a million other attributes! A season will never be defined by a win or by a loss. A season will be defined by its players and the coaches that led them. Therefore, the War Eagles were winners in the 2023 season! As a parent of a senior, I have wondered how to process the end of the football season and the end of his football career. Maybe football is not really over, even though it seems to be. Jodie Waters, the wife of Head Coach Charley Waters summed it up perfectly in something she wrote called “The Final Buzzer.” With her permission, she allowed us to run the below part that she wrote and maybe it will help you process the end of this season and make you contemplate is it really ever over! The Final Buzzer Written by Jodie Waters (wife of Head Coach Charley Waters) Another football season is (officially) in the books over here at the Waters household. Whatever that means. A door seemingly closed for our senior, left cracked open for the sophomore and, as always, for the coach. Is football season every really shored up? If you don’t love high school football, I can sort of understand. But we aren’t the same. It’s a beautiful thing to watch a group of teenagers form a huddle and execute a plan called in by a group of coaches eager to see the outcome. It’s even more mesmerizing to watch young team leaders call their own play. Especially if it works. But even if it doesn’t. They regroup. Go back to war. Have you ever seen a team give up mid game? Even if they are down by double digits, those boys get back up and go again. Coaches standing by them. Fighting the fight. Reaching for the goal. No other team sport requires such intricacy. Such attention to detail. Eleven almost men working together for a common cause, making split second decisions and readjusting in the moment based on failure or success. The football field is where many boys become men. They learn to play with heart. With grit. They learn to make decisions to benefit the whole. They learn that self-serving mentality promotes weakness. They learn to help their foes from the ground just after putting their all into knocking them down. They learn to build each other up. To take a knee when another man can’t get up after the whistle is blown. They learn that without fundamental knowledge and investment, they are nothing. They learn the fine art of dedication. They learn to win with grace. But, more importantly, to lose with pride. Today, there is no film to be broken down. No scheme to develop. No personnel to adjust. The final buzzer has sounded. But the lessons aren’t forgotten. The memories are enduring, bonds everlasting. Ask any man who has been part of a football team, and they will answer the same: Football season is Never. Officially. Over
