Newspaper Page Text
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!
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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
