Deerfield-Windsor brothers play a big role

ALBANY — Many times, football players feel such a close bond to their teammates that they refer to them as family. The relationship comes from the many endless hours spent together while suffering through agonizing defeats and glorious victories. While most teams only feel like they are related, football at Deerfield-Windsor is quite literally a family affair.

The Knights have seven pairs of brothers on their roster, including twins Derek and Derik Davis. To avoid confusion, the pair goes by their middle name. In addition to having 14 brothers on the team, Deerfield’s starting quarterback Tyler Lowe is the son of head coach Allen Lowe.

“I don’t really know if we have ever had this many sets of brothers,” Allen Lowe said. “It just kind of all of a sudden hit us that this year we had a bunch of them. You know, a good amount of times we will have sets of brothers but, having seven, that is a pretty good number.”

Lowe said the toughest part about coaching so many siblings is not mixing their names up.

“Sometimes, it is tough to get the names right,” he said. “It is good because the younger kids learn how to feed off the older ones and you feel good about what you got coming up.”

The Knights will play host to Gatewood in the second round of the Georgia Independent Schools Association Class AAA state playoffs Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Webb Memorial Stadium.

Of the 14 brothers, seven of them start for the Knights including seniors Holt Jones, Connor Lawson and Ellis Gill.

Holt is a starter on the offensive line where for part of the year, he paved the way for his brother and Deerfield-Windsor running back Garrett Jones, who is now injured.

“It’s cool to have him on the team,” Holt said. “Since he is playing different positions and he is a running back, it is kind of cool because I get to block for him and he gets to run.”

Connor Lawson, whose brother Davis is a freshman on the team, said he has argued with his brother a few times about lack of hustle during practice or a game.

“I’ll call anybody out really if they are not doing their job,” Connor said. “I think I’m a little harder on him because he is my brother, but I think I try to be hard on everyone. To help us get where we want to be, I think you’ve got to call people out.”

Ellis Gill said having this many brothers on the team doesn’t really change a whole lot, but he enjoys being able to play with his younger brother Lawson.

“You kind of get to watch him and see how good he is,” Ellis said. “You get to see what he does and how hard he works.”

Despite having so many siblings on the team, the coaching staff hasn’t had to break any fights between them this year, but Lowe said it has happened in the past.