Sports

Blazing new trails

• Ever since Baconton Charter School was founded in 2000, rumblings of a Blazers football program have been nothing more than talk. That is, until now.

Danny Aller

BACONTON — At just after 6:45 p.m. Monday evening, an uneven row of cars and trucks pepper the outside fence of an old, worn-down softball field less than a mile off U.S. Highway 19 South in Baconton.

While some venture outside their vehicles and find a seat on the bleachers, braving the infamous Mitchell County gnats, most of the onlookers stay put.

Some smiling. Some grimacing. Some pointing. Some even dissecting.

But all of them watching.

And while the collection is not large, it’s quite bigger than one would expect considering the informal occasion.

Then again, this tiny, close-knit community of Baconton — population 1,001 — has waited years for what they see before them now.

Even if it’s just a practice.

Suddenly, the screech of a whistle fills the air. And as quick as the players come to attention, so does their audience.

“That’s not how we do it!” yells a coach as he points a finger at one of his players. “You gotta get down low! Get down low!”

The crowd eats it up; hangs on every word — ignoring the fact that the player being dressed down might be their kid.

“Finally,” their expressions say, gushing in a carefree state of gridiron euphoria. “We finally have a football team.”

And for the newly formed Baconton Charter School football program, filled with 31 eager young men with little-to-no experience before this year, they’ll happily oblige any

audience that wants to cheer them on through their uncharted journey.

“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know who a lot of the people are or why they’re here. They just started showing up the first day we had practice,” said Matthew Hays, the Blazers’ sophomore halfback and cornerback. “But I tell you what, we love ’em.”

And Baconton loves you, Matthew Hays.

You, and your 30 teammates, six coaches — one of whom doubles as a trainer — and water boy, all of whom represent the missing piece many small towns across Georgia consider to be the one thing that can make them whole.

It’s Peach State high school football — something no place that loves it should be without.

And now for football-hungry Baconton — thanks to its ambitious student body of 200 pushing for it, a determined head coach and a widespread Southwest Georgia prep football community which has supported them every step of the way — the Blazers are finally ready to step under the lights.

An idea, a meeting and the $5,000 hat

Up until this year, Baconton Charter teacher and cross country/track coach Glenn Palmer wasn’t a great person to ask about why the Blazers should have a football program.

Now, if you wanted to hear why they shouldn’t, he’s your man.

“I could’ve given you several reasons why this was a bad idea — been saying it for years,” said Palmer, a

38-year-old Pelham native, who ironically is now the Blazers’ head coach. “But the kids just wanted it so bad, and when you see their faces and how happy they are now that we have a football program, I tell you what; I sure am glad we did.

“There hasn’t been one day of regret since we strapped on the pads. Not by me, or anybody.”

The idea started being kicked around shortly after Baconton Charter was established in 2000, while the proverbial ball didn’t get rolling until November of last year when Palmer ran into one of his students, Richard Walker, in the hall outside of his American History class.

“He and I were talking about it, and I had just got done telling him for the 15,000th time why we shouldn’t have a team, how we’d get killed if we played football — slaughtered,” Palmer recalled. “And what he said next, I’ll never forget: ‘Yeah, well we may get slaughtered and we may get killed ... but, man coach — it sure would be fun.’ ”

After that encounter, Palmer internally did a 180 about his feelings on football at Baconton and sped the talk up about making it happen. Then, in February, action was finally taken by the school board, which passed a majority vote to have a “meeting of interest” put on a future docket.

And what happened from there was simply stunning.

“So they call this meeting one night in February at the middle school auditorium, and it wasn’t like a real public thing. All we did was tell the kids to tell their parents to come out and show support if they wanted to see us have a team,” Palmer said. “When I got there, I couldn’t believe what I saw: The auditorium, which holds something like 300 people, was packed to the walls. We were shocked.”

Even more shocking was the fact that when a “hat” was passed around toward the end of the meeting to see what kind of money could initially be raised to start the program, what came of that church-like collection took Palmer’s breath away.

“It was unreal: $5,000. That’s what we raised the first night,” he said. “And we didn’t even have a team, or the (go-ahead) to do it yet!”

Baconton athletic director John Pinson attended the meeting, but unlike Palmer, he wasn’t surprised with what he saw.

“That’s the way Baconton folks are — they support their sports teams, especially one like football they’ve wanted for a while,” said Pinson, adding football is now the sixth boys sport the school now offers. “For example, when we started fast pitch softball six years ago — our first sport in school history — at our first game, we couldn’t hit, we couldn’t pitch and we couldn’t throw, but you should’ve seen the stands. People were everywhere — and I expect the same at our first (football) game.”

The final green light to move forward came shortly after that first meeting. In March, when a second meeting was held by the school board, this time the board approved the creation of a football program — including a middle school team and cheerleading squad — to begin competing the following season.

Word broke among the Baconton student the next day in the school cafeteria.

“We were all having lunch and some of the coaches just walked in and said, ‘Y’all ready? We got us a football team!’ ” Hays said. “It was awesome! We wanted to start that second.”

Welcome to the

‘Blue Dungeon’

There were some valid concerns from parents and school board members alike when Baconton decided to add pigskin to its curriculum.

Like, in a school of 200 students, whether there would even be enough kids to field a team.

Palmer quelled those fears rather quickly when he got nearly 40 kids to show up to the first of what would become daily 5 a.m. weight training sessions in a small portable building located on the back side of the practice field.

Otherwise known as the “Blue Dungeon.”

“Well, it’s not much right now, but this is it,” says Palmer as he unlocks the door to the Blue Dungeon, which Baconton originally planned to use for a gymnastics program that never reached fruition. Weights and benches litter the dark room, although even Palmer can’t help but smile when he points out a pommel horse and uneven bars tucked away in a corner. Most of the weightlifting equipment, meanwhile, was donated by various Southwest Georgia prep football programs that heard of Baconton’s plight.

“Eventually, the number of kids who came out went down to just above 30,” Palmer said. “But ever since we got the Blue Dungeon — which is owned by one of our players’ parents who lets us use it — every one of those kids has been here at 5 a.m., five days a week, lifting.”

Of course, working out in a blue box isn’t the only quirk of this first-year program.

Outside of not having a true football practice field at this stage, or even a locker room, Baconton also shares that aforementioned run-down softball field it practices on with its middle school football team.

The Blazers also have a unique way of storing their equipment at the end of each day.

In the tool shed of agriculture teacher and special teams coach Larry Burkette — who had to take his rakes, shovels, lawnmowers and pots and cram them all into one one corner of a space about a third the size of the Blue Dungeon — sits the Blazers’ game helmets, pants, footballs and pads.

Directly behind the ag shed is the school’s greenhouse, where the team also stores heavybags and tackling dummies.

Palmer, meanwhile, can only shake his head and laugh at the growing pains.

“So we’re down at Pelham over the summer for this 7-on-7 passing camp and I keep hearing all this talk from their coaches about how great their new stadium is, and practice field and all their facilities and how wonderful it all is. And here I am, like, ‘Yeah, well, right now we’re trying to raise money for our own shed.’ ”

“I guess it just comes with being the new kids on the block.”

And with that “new kids” tag comes concern for the safety of the young men playing the game, which is why Baconton — while recognized by the GHSA as now having a football team -— will only play an eight-game, junior varsity schedule its first two seasons, holding all its home games on Saturday nights at Mitchell County’s Centennial Stadium.

After all, says E.J. McCorkle — an offensive guard/linebacker who is one of the team’s five seniors —he and the rest of the Blazers have realized quickly that football isn’t a game to be learned over night.

And being thrown into the fire against varsity programs in their first year likely wouldn’t have been the best idea — even if he and his Blazers teammates think they’re ready for it.

“None of us really knew what we were doing when we started. It was a lot of our first times playing when we came to the first practice,” he said. “Right now, we’re still just trying to learn as we go — and I think we’re doing a good job. Everyone out here is really confident. We just can’t wait for that first game.”

While that won’t come until Aug. 30 at home against the Seminole County JV, technically, the Blazers already had their moment of coronation, putting on a spring game — offense vs. defense — in late May after just two weeks of practice.

And again, seemingly the entire Baconton community turned out — “We had to be 400 or 500 people,” Palmer says — despite standing room only and the fact the game was played on the girls main softball field right off of U.S. Highway 19.

“Man, you should’ve seen it: We lined (off the field), had the kids in their white pants and helmets ... cheerleaders and everything,” the coach said proudly. “And now after three months of lifting weights and starting practice the second we could on Aug. 1, we’re ready for the real thing.”

Practice makes

perfect

Near the end of Monday’s practice, the sun begins to sneak behind the trees as a tired group of young men struggles through the final moments of drills they’ve been practicing endlessly since the day they strapped on the cleats.

As the offense lines up, Blazers sophomore quarterback James Davis drops back to pass as the exhausted Baconton defense charges hard, while the equally wiped out offensive line pedals backward with their hands up, trying to protect.

Just as the “D” closes in, Davis gets off a pass to a downfield receiver, who jumps over the outstretched defender to make what looks like a phenomenal catch — one that offensive coordinator Lynwood Griner would surely want to end practice on.

Not that day, though.

The wideout drops the ball as it bounces just off his fingertips, falling to the red dirt of the softball infield.

Griner doesn’t flinch.

“Line it up, and let’s do it again,” he says as his fellow Baconton assistant coaches, Brian Brooks (OL/DL), Gabe Council (LB), Larry Burkette (special teams), Blake Pollack (middle school coach and assistant) and Wayne Partridge (DE, who doubles as the team’s trainer having served as a medic in the U.S. Army), all nod in agreement. Griner’s set on running a flex-bone offense, similar to what Georgia Southern once used, and he’d go until morning if it meant getting it right.

After all, practice makes perfect — and Baconton needs a lot of practice.

And, admittedly, so do their coaches.

“How long have I been coaching football?” Pollack repeats the question as he, Palmer and the rest of the Baconton coaches huddle around after practice ends, while players exit the field and the row of uneven cars begins to pull away. “Well, I guess about two weeks. We just barely know more than the kids.”

The remark draws a roar of laughter from the men, most of whom can relate. The only formal training they’ve had consisted of a summer high school football rules clinic at Westover High School each was required to attend and a preseason pep-talk from Palmer, which he said ultimately turned into a bull session with all them realizing how little they knew.

Palmer, however, did play during his days at Pelham and was a one-time coaching assistant at former Mitchell-Baker High School. So when he was tapped by the Baconton administration as the face of the program, he turned to another Southwest Georgia coach for help.

“Dave Johnson over at Lee County has been a tremendous person to go to during all this,” said Palmer, who was introduced a few months ago to Johnson by Blazers baseball coach Bubber Birdsong (the duo were old friends from their days coaching baseball together in Alabama). “Whether I’m calling him after a practice and asking him how I handle four kids not showing up to ‘Picture Day,’ and whether to suspend them, or not; or just asking for general advice on the best things to do at practice, he’s been a friendly ear.”

Johnson, who donated some of Lee County’s old, unused equipment to Baconton when he heard they were starting a program, says he’s been happy to help. After all, as a longtime coach himself, he knows what it’s like to try to turn nothing into something.

“Any time someone starts something from the ground up, there’s going to be growing pains. You’ll take some lumps, learn from it, grow from it and move on,” Johnson said. “I’ve been asked to turn programs around before, but I’ve never had that kind of opportunity to be on the ground floor — the founding father. It’s very unique.”

Hays and his teammates sure think so, especially considering how far they’ve come in such a short time.

“We’ve gotten so much better since the spring game — and right now, that Seminole game can’t come soon enough,” Hays said. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we’re gonna go out and beat Seminole 107-0 or nothing like that. I would just say right now, we’re confident in the work we put in and our results. But we’re not cocky. We’ve still got a long way to go.”

So while pass plays that weren’t executed by the offense can be fixed now, once the season starts next week, the window for errors shrinks considerably.

And even if they lose

107-0, instead of winning by that margin, Palmer and his team wouldn’t trade what football has done to the town of Baconton.

“About a month after I got the job as head coach, I went down to get some breakfast one morning at the Midway here in town — a little place where people go to talk, eat, and what not,” Palmer said. “And as soon as I walked in, this older fellow startled me when he yelled out, ‘Hey! You! You’re that new football coach at Baconton. Come on over here, lemme buy you some breakfast. I wanna talk football.’ ”

Sure enough, Palmer and the gentleman sat, ate and talked gridiron for the next half hour. At the end of the conversation, the man asked Palmer if he would sit tight for a second while he ran to his truck to get something.

A few minutes later, he returned.

“He just walked up to me and handed me a check for $500 and told me to put it toward the football team — and that’s happened to me more than once,” said Palmer, who then paused, wiped the sweat from his brow, swatted a gnat and took a deep breath, as if overwhelmed a bit. “It’s just been amazing the kind of impact one little ol’ sports team can have.

“Southwest Georgia loves its football. We just hope we can make it proud.”