PHEBA — Going “all out” in pads is a thing of the past for Hearne Foster.
But injuries and fatigue typically take their toll on every team late in the season, so it’s natural for coaches to need reinforcements, even ones who last donned the shoulder pads five years ago.
That’s why Foster, 24, surrendered his assistant coach whistle for pads and a uniform late in the 2014 regular season and prior to Hebron Christian’s playoff game against Sharkey-Issaquena.
Unable to rely on a stable of underclassmen or second-string players to go against the first team, head coach David Foster, who is Hearn’s father, asked his son and some of his friends to help him out.
“We had nine or 10 players and we didn’t want to get anyone hurt,” Hearne Foster said. “We went hard enough to show them a look, but we weren’t going full speed.”
Depth issues are magnified at schools like Foster’s alma mater, Hebron Christian School. The Mississippi Association of Independent Schools member, which is located in Clay County, is one of two in The Dispatch’s circulation area that plays Eight-Man football in the MAIS. Central Academy in Macon is the other. Victory Christian in Columbus also plays Eight-Man football, but it is a member of the Alabama Christian Athletic Association.
While Mississippi High School Activities Association members like Columbus, Starkville, and West Point, as well as many larger MAIS schools, scoff at the notion of not having enough bodies in practice, that often is the reality at MAIS schools that play Class A or Eight-Man football. This season, 10 of Hebron Christian’s Central Academy entered the season with 12 players, while Oak Hill Academy and Columbus Christian needed to dress out freshmen to beef their rosters out to more than 20 players.
Roster sizes are a constant concern for football coaches at small schools. Hebron Christian played 11-man football up until converting to Eight-Man football in 2011. Columbus Christian has moved from Class AA to Class A and back to Class A-AA this season. The MAIS reclassifies the alignment of its schools every two years based on the school enrollment.
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This season, Oak Hill Academy first-year football coach Chris Craven has tweaked his practice plans to go at a faster tempo for shorter stretches in an attempt to give his players more rest. He said in the preseason the goal was to keep players healthy.
Despite changes to the way coaches organize their practices, teams often are reluctant to play freshmen because they usually aren’t physically mature enough to handle competing against juniors and seniors. In the MAIS, if a freshman plays four quarters in his team’s junior varsity game, he can play two quarters in a varsity game.
In addition to Hearn Foster, Yance Falkner, Mitch Fondren, Ty Baker, and Trea Foster also dressed out in practice to help the Eagles simulate game action. Foster, who played center on the offensive line and middle linebacker on defense in his high school career, weighs 255 pounds now. He said practicing with the Eagles was “fun” because he had an opportunity to play running back and wide receiver. He said the practices didn’t make him wish he had played running back in his heyday.
Instead, it illustrated the importance of having former players associated with the program who can come back in help in some way. Putting the pads on might be at the extreme end of the spectrum, but Foster said he was more than willing to accept the responsibility to help the Eagles prepare.
“You definitely have to do that, and that is what is cool about this school,” said Foster, who remembers being on football teams at Hebron Christian that had double the numbers of players on the 2014 and 2015 teams. “I have been out for five years now and I still feel a part of this, as do a lot of the players who graduated from the school. We don’t have to be here, but I want all of these kids to have the same chance I had.”
Foster, who is a wildlife and fisheries graduate student at Mississippi State, said the intimate feel of Hebron Christian helps create more of a “family” atmosphere, which makes lending a hand in any way possible more likely. Foster said Hebron Christian gave him “14 of the best years of his life,” so it was easy for him to decide to help out his father and the 2014 Eagles.
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Foster continues to give back this season as an assistant coach. Hebron Christian (1-1) will play host to Strider Academy at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Everybody is supporting everybody,” Foster said. “It is nice when you only have nine people that you know somebody has your back. It is not you against the world. When I played, we had 16 and 20. It was y’all against the world, not just you. It makes a big difference.”
David Foster said the Eagles typically have to do more conditioning in the preseason to prepare for the regular season. Even with that extra work, Foster said the toll of a three-month season wears on players. The fact that the Eagles have limited depth makes it challenging for him to pick spots to give players rest, but he said the players have accepted the ups and downs that come at small schools.
Foster has helped out at Hebron Christian for going on a decade. He served as an assistant coach for Sam Pearson and Greg Watkins, who is now the football coach at Columbus Christian. He stayed on at the school and worked as an assistant coach for Tri Nason before taking on the job as head football coach. His wife, Donna, works at the school as a counselor and a financial director.
Foster, who played 11-man football at Oak Hill Academy (Class of 1979), said the game hasn’t changed very much, but he sees differences in athletic ability and work ethic between the generations. When he played, Foster said he used to haul hay for his mother and then hired out to haul hay for others. He said that work helped improve his core strength. These days, though, he said kids have more things to do and more distractions, which makes it tougher for the Eagles to stay healthy through a season.
That’s why any help a coach can get from former players goes a long way, even if it is from someone who has been away from the game for five years.
“They would run a scout team and a couple of them were good skill-type guys,” David Foster said, talking about Hearne and his four friends dressing out in practice. “They weren’t supposed to hit my guys and it helped us a lot numbers wise.
“If you have 60 players and you get your star hurt it still hurts you. But if you have 13 players and you get a starter hurt it hurts you about as much as that star because all of your players are stars when you have only 13.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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