H.S. FOOTBALL: South Side QB Willingham started leading last year
First-year South Side High football coach Brian Moore doesn’t hesitate when he’s asked to point out the leader in the locker room for his squad.
Cade Willingham has shown potential to be a leader since his sophomore year with the Hawks, and a lot of people began to take notice in the final game of the 2013 season, when he threw for 10 touchdowns in a win over Bolivar.
The Hawks hoped for similar results a year later when they ended the 2014 season at Bolivar, but that didn’t happen. They were shut out by the Tigers 37-0 and then had to make the 30-mile trip back home.
When the bus returned to Jackson, Willingham made his first unofficial decision as the leader of the team looking ahead to this year. He called a meeting of the junior class who would be seniors this year. They met in the team meeting room in the fieldhouse.
“I just let them know I was tired of what we’d been through, and I didn’t want what happened last year to happen again this year,” Willingham said. “Whatever we had to do to avoid that, I wanted everybody in that room to go ahead and commit to doing it.”
The immediate response was positive. Another player spoke up and reiterated Willingham’s message. Then another player did, and another.
“I can’t remember if all of us stood up and said something that night, but it was almost all of us if it wasn’t,” Willingham said. “We knew we’d have to work hard and sacrifice a lot, but we all said we were willing to do it that night.”
Fast forward about 10 months to this past week, and Willingham’s leadership was still evident. He was the first one to make the long walk from the fieldhouse to the practice field, and he even interrupted an interview to encourage some of the stragglers to put a little more hustle into their walk to practice.
Willingham was adamant he’s not the only leader on the team.
“This is a big junior class, and every one of us is taking ownership of this team,” Willingham said. “We’re committed to winning and fighting hard even when we’re not the team leading on the scoreboard.”
That attitude has helped so far this season. The Hawks trailed late in the fourth quarter of their opener against Obion County but came back to win in the final minute.
“Nothing against the players on last year’s team, including the ones who are back this year, but I don’t know if we win that game if we’d played it last year,” Willingham said. “We just were quick to go ahead and give up if things got tough.
“And that was the main thing I wanted us to avoid this year. It’s football. It’s going to be tough. We as a team need to accept that and be prepared to fight back when that happens. Hopefully we’ll keep doing that as the year keeps going.”
The Hawks travel to Selmer this week to take on McNairy Central in both teams’ region opener.
Brandon Shields, 425-9751