South Gibson football hosts buddies for all-star camp
MEDINA, Tenn. – Going through drills. Hearing your name called out for everyone to hear. Running through a tunnel of players from the field house onto the field.
To some who play football, that can become routine. For participants at the South Gibson High School Football All-star Camp this week, it was the fulfillment of a dream.
“I love putting on the jerseys and the pads,” said Kevin Riffle, a special education student at South Gibson. “I like it when they call my name out on the speakers.”
Riffle and the rest of the special education class at South Gibson have gotten the thrill of participating in the camp every year since they’ve been in middle school. The Hornet football program has done this for the class for the past seven years, since the spring preceding their first varsity season.
Head coach Scott Stidham wanted to do something at the end of spring for the community. Assistant coach Jim Fishel, who is a former head coach at Union City, got his Golden Tornado players involved in an annual Special Olympics-type event.
“I wanted the players on the team to get a reminder of how blessed they were,” Fishel said. “Stidham wanted to do something like that here, and I told him what we did up there. We do it here now.”
Amber Williams is the special education coordinator at the high school.
“We’ve got a buddy program for the kids in the program, and it allows them to become buddies with other students in the school,” Williams said. “And when the football coaches approached us about doing something like this, I thought it was a wonderful idea.”
Football players, like graduating seniors Christian Needham and Dustin Moore, and junior Hayden Horne, have been involved with the program the last couple years. It’s helped some of their buddies become more interested in the football team.
Armando Sanchez is one of them. He’s known around school as the student with the privilege of blowing the whistle at the end of lunch to let everyone in the cafetorium know it’s time to return to class. He’s been known to signal time to change drills in the camp as well. He’s also the main one Stidham hangs out with on Monday if the Hornets didn’t have a great game the preceding Friday.
“The good thing about the kids in that class is we know it doesn’t matter how we did the Friday before, they still love us — win or lose,” Stidham said. “That’s why doing this camp is probably my favorite day of the year as the head football coach at South Gibson County High School.”
It’s also a favorite day for Jonathon Sherer. Horne was one of his buddies, and he enjoys getting to practice defense one day a year with the team.
“I like running at other people and tackling them,” Sherer said. “I’ve come to this for the last three years, and we laugh a lot every time.”
Grayson Odom loves the generosity of the team.
“I like getting to meet all the football players,” Odom said. “And I love getting a free T-shirt.”
For many in the Hornets program, interacting with the all-stars isn’t an annual event.
“We don’t go to practice or workouts each day without Fishel and a player or two sticking their head in their classroom on the way and getting a few high-fives,” Stidham said. “They love us and we love them.
“All-star camp day is a fun day.”
Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.