SPORTS

H.S. FOOTBALL: TCA, Adamsville try to change fortunes vs. each other

Brandon Shields
bjshields@jacksonsun.com

Trinity Christian Academy’s football team has played a couple of tough opponents and lost both games by an average of 44.5-17.5.

The young group of players coming up this year has shown its youth, struggling to play consistently for four quarters against top competition from St. George’s and University School of Jackson.

As frustrating as it’s been at times in the past two weeks, Lions head coach Blake Butler knows the important part of the season – region play – hasn’t started yet, and he’s not given up hope. He expects no one else around TCA to start panicking anytime soon.

“These last two games, yeah we wanted to win them, but they have no bearing on if we make the playoffs or not,” Butler said.

This week does, though, and the Lions travel to Adamsville for a matchup that’s been among the area’s most anticipated for the last couple of years. But both teams have dealt with the struggles of playing with a lot of young players.

“I look at Adamsville’s film, and it’s almost a mirror image because they appear to be in the same boat we’re in,” Butler said.

Adamsville head coach Brandon Gray said he has a hard time believing the Cardinals have dealt with the struggles they’ve dealt with in the first two games – a come-from-behind win over Chester County in two overtimes and a 35-0 loss at Hardin County last week.

“I told the guys [Tuesday] that I keep expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out from behind a tree somewhere around here and tell me I’m being punked,” Gray said referring to a show that once aired on MTV in which Kutcher would play pranks on other celebrities. “I don’t think they got the reference though.”

What Gray does expect his players to get is what they’re trying to do as a team, which he says for the most part they do.

“I’ve sat here and watched film every night this week, and it’s the same thing,” Gray said. “We’ll run a play – defense or offense – and 10 guys will get everything right, and the other guy for whatever reason won’t.

“Then the next play, the one who was getting it wrong will get it right, but somebody else will mess up.”

Gray said it was frustrating, but he also understands the season is young and younger players will typically have the mental light come on later in the year.

“I expect us to be a noticeably better team in Week 10 or 11 than we have been in 1 and 2,” Gray said. “I just hope it’s not too late that we miss the playoffs.”

Butler had similar statements about his young players.

“We’ve got a lot of sophomores playing, and it typically takes a sophomore about a half season before that light does come on for them,” Butler said. “But there are small victories each day in practice where a player figures one of the little things out.

“Hopefully we’ll have a enough small victories that we start recording big victories on Friday nights.”

Brandon Shields, 425-9751