Brad Butler has prepared the Heritage Academy football team.
Now it is up to the Patriots to take on the adversity they have faced in the first half of the 2010 season head on.
That”s the only way the second-year head coach knows how to tackle the recent death of Heritage Academy student-athlete Spencer Perkins and the loss of junior quarterback Brandon Bell and senior running back John Laws Ferguson to season-ending injuries.
“I told them the other day I promised you adversity and I didn”t lie,” Butler said. “We have had our share and we”re getting somebody else”s. But we have to have somebody else step in there and keep plugging. That is what I expect them to do, and I feel like they”re OK with that.”
Heritage Academy (3-2) will try to rebound from a loss last week to Madison-Ridgeland Academy when it travels to Presbyterian Christian at 7 p.m. Friday.
Earlier this week, Heritage Academy remembered Perkins, who died Friday in Jackson after accidentally shooting himself in the face with a shotgun while dove hunting on family owned land Sept. 12 near Brooksville. A crowd of more than 800 people attended his funeral Tuesday at First Baptist Church in downtown Columbus.
Butler said dealing with the death of Perkins and finding replacements for leaders like Bell and Ferguson will help the team build character. He said it will be tempting to use excuses the rest of the season, but he won”t allow his players to fall into that trap.
“You can pout about it, you can make excuses, and you can say if, or, and but, or you suck it up and play ball,” Butler said. “We can”t feel sorry for ourselves because nobody else is. When we line up to play Friday night the guys we will play will do their best to win a ballgame, and we have to be doing the same.”
Butler said the Patriots have focused on preparing for the multiple formations they expect to see Friday night. He said it will be imperative for Heritage Academy to line up correctly and to pick out the proper matchups to avoid big plays.
Offensively, he said sophomore quarterback Cade Lott, who took over after Bell went down, has settled in well. He said sophomore Parker Turner also has worked in at quarterback. He said it is possible both could see action Friday night because both can do different things.
Lott and Turner are two sophomores who will be called on to step into bigger roles. Butler talked about the potential of the sophomore class at the start of the season, and likes how those players have matured.
“It has been a little better than I expected,” Butler said. “We expected a lot out of them and that sophomore group is giving it to us. A lot of those guys are guys who have been making plays offensively and defensively. I have been proud of the way they have reacted to everything.”
Butler said the injuries have depleted a team that didn”t have a ton of death at the start of the season. Still, he said the players on the bench are talented and now it is their time to show what they can do. Things might look a little different than they did with Bell at quarterback, but Butler feels good about the players who will step in.
They, like their teammates, will have to put everything they have faced this season behind them and do their best to concentrate on doing their jobs.
“Anything worth having is not going to come easy,” Butler said. “We still have opportunities to succeed throughout the season, and we hope to make the playoffs and make a run in them.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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