Albany State football: Building bonds beyond football

ALBANY — On Saturdays this fall, Okevion Suggs will do his work in the trenches.

Sunday morning, the Albany State freshman offensive lineman stood somewhere entirely different.

Behind a pulpit.

Suggs delivered the message at Shiloh Baptist Church, and when he looked out into the congregation, some familiar faces were looking back.

His new teammates.

Several Albany State football players attended the service. Some did more than attend.

They joined the choir.

There were no blocking assignments to learn, no weights to lift and no opponent to prepare for.

But in David Bowser’s mind, what was happening inside that church had something to do with football.

Albany State’s new head coach has spent much of his first summer trying to answer one of the most important questions facing his program.

How do you quickly turn a roster filled with transfers, freshmen and players from different backgrounds into a team?

Bowser doesn’t have long to figure it out.

Albany State opens the season Aug. 29 at Florida A&M against former Golden Rams coach Quinn Gray and former ASU quarterback Isaiah Knowles.

A week later, the Golden Rams travel to Canton, Ohio, to face Johnson C. Smith — the program Bowser left to become Albany State’s head coach — in the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic.

Two difficult opponents.

Two hostile environments.

And a new Albany State team that Bowser knows will need to be more than a collection of football players to handle them.

“An effort to get closer and get ready for hostile environments,” Bowser said. “The first two games are going to be really tough.”

That’s why some of the most important work Bowser believes his team has done this summer hasn’t involved a football at all.

Building relationships

The process began long before preseason camp.

About 90 Golden Rams participated in summer workouts, something Bowser believes gave a roster with so many newcomers a valuable head start.

Instead of transfers and freshmen arriving for camp as strangers, they had already spent weeks sweating together, competing together and learning about one another.

That mattered to Bowser.

Football teams inevitably encounter adversity. There will be turnovers and missed assignments. There will be long drives when the defense can’t get off the field and possessions when the offense can’t move the ball. There will be road crowds making communication difficult.

Those are the moments when relationships can become as important as schemes.

Bowser wants his players to know who is standing beside them when those moments arrive.

So the effort to bring them together hasn’t stopped when workouts ended.

Sunday at Shiloh was one example.

There have been others.

Westover High School principal William Chunn, an Albany State alumnus, has spent time with the Golden Rams. Dougherty County Sheriff Terron Hayes has also spoken to the team.

For a roster filled with players who are new not only to Albany State but in many cases to Albany itself, those visits have served another purpose.

Bowser wants his players connected to the place they’re representing.

Becoming part of Albany

That effort has taken the Golden Rams outside the football program and into the community.

Albany State football has adopted nine local elementary schools as part of the Love Your Community initiative.

Players and a coach were divided among the schools, and when children arrived for the beginning of the new school year, Golden Rams were there to greet them.

It wasn’t designed as a one-day photo opportunity.

Albany State players are expected to return to their adopted schools throughout the school year for reading days, field events and other activities.

The elementary students get college athletes showing up at their schools, encouraging them and becoming familiar faces.

The Golden Rams get something in return.

They become part of Albany.

For Bowser, that matters.

Many of the players wearing Albany State uniforms this fall didn’t grow up in Southwest Georgia. Some arrived through the transfer portal. Others came directly from high school.

They may have come to Albany because of football.

Bowser wants them to understand the community beyond the stadium, too.

The visits from Chunn and Hayes, the elementary-school partnerships and even a Sunday morning spent supporting a teammate at church all contribute to that goal.

They’re opportunities for players to learn about Albany.

They’re also opportunities for players to learn about each other.

And the clock is ticking.

No easy beginning

There won’t be much time for Albany State to gradually develop chemistry once the season begins.

The Golden Rams’ first two games come with intriguing connections on both sidelines.

Gray coached Albany State for three seasons before leaving for FAMU, and Knowles was the Golden Rams’ starting quarterback before following him to Tallahassee.

Bowser will make his Albany State debut against them.

Then comes Johnson C. Smith.

Bowser knows that program particularly well.

He spent the past three seasons on the Johnson C. Smith coaching staff before Albany State hired him to take over the Golden Rams.

Now he’ll face his former team in Canton on one of the biggest stages in HBCU football.

Those first two Saturdays will provide Bowser with an early look at far more than whether Albany State can block, tackle and execute its offense.

He’ll get to see how his players respond together when things become difficult.

That’s why the work of building this team has extended beyond the practice field.

It started with about 90 players sweating through summer workouts.

It continued with community leaders welcoming them to Albany and Golden Rams standing outside elementary schools welcoming children on the first day of class.

And on a Sunday morning at Shiloh Baptist Church, it included a freshman offensive lineman standing behind a pulpit while some of his teammates sat in the congregation and others sang in the choir.

Albany State has spent the summer learning plays and competing for jobs.

The Golden Rams have also spent it learning each other.

On Aug. 29 in Tallahassee, Bowser will begin finding out whether a roster filled with newcomers has become a team.