Growing pains test Deerfield-Windsor Knights

Photo by Jim Griffith

ALBANY — Jake McCrae has seen this Deerfield-Windsor team before.

Not these players, exactly. Not this schedule. Not these particular mistakes.

But he recognizes the growing pains.

The Knights are 1-3 after Friday night’s 48-7 loss to Southwest Georgia Academy in Damascus. A talented Pacelli team comes to Albany this Friday, followed by a Lakeland Christian program so loaded with college prospects that McCrae jokingly described it as “the Green Bay Packers.”

This is not the start Deerfield-Windsor wanted.

It also isn’t completely unfamiliar.

Three years ago, the Knights were coming off a state championship-game loss to John Milledge Academy and had graduated a large, accomplished senior class. What remained was a talented but inexperienced group that stumbled through a 1-9 season.

“We’re seeing a lot of the same things we saw in that 1-9 season,” McCrae said.

The encouraging part of the comparison came later.

Those young players grew up. Deerfield-Windsor won a state championship the following season and returned to the championship game as that group matured into seniors.

Now the Knights are starting over again.

The senior class that powered the program’s most recent championship run is gone. In its place is a roster filled with players learning varsity football while playing it.

“We have a lot of young, inexperienced players who are having to learn how to play in tough environments,” McCrae said. “They’re learning how to react when teams are bigger and faster than you and how to react when you shoot yourself in the foot. We’ve got some really good seniors, too. They are just few and far between.”

Those lessons arrived harshly in Damascus.

Southwest Georgia Academy handed Deerfield-Windsor its third loss in four games and left the Knights trying to rebuild their confidence during a schedule that offers little time to catch their breath.

Pacelli enters Friday’s game with a 3-1 record. Then comes Lakeland Christian, a Florida program McCrae said features at least four players with Division I offers. Its starting quarterback has committed to South Florida.

“We’ve got the Green Bay Packers coming to town next week,” McCrae said.

It was a joke, but only partly.

The coming games will place Deerfield-Windsor’s young players in exactly the situations that have troubled them—facing teams with more size, speed and experience.

McCrae understands why his players are struggling.

At a smaller school, building a full junior varsity schedule isn’t always possible. Some of his players are taking their first meaningful snaps in varsity games rather than developing against players their own age.

“I’ve got a lot of good kids who have no real football experience,” McCrae said. “At a small school, they didn’t have the opportunity for a JV schedule. This is the first time they’re really getting to play.”

That changes how progress must be measured.

For an experienced team, success is counted in victories, championships and playoff rounds. For these Knights, it sometimes means executing an assignment correctly, responding to a mistake or continuing to compete when the scoreboard turns ugly.

“You have to take little wins wherever you can find them,” McCrae said.

That doesn’t mean Deerfield-Windsor is conceding the season.

The Knights still have time to develop before the games that will determine their postseason chances. McCrae’s objective is to use the demanding early schedule as preparation, absorb the lessons and have a different football team ready when region play arrives.

Then, perhaps, the little victories can become bigger ones.

“You hope by the time you get to region play, you can make some noise in the region, get in the playoffs and make some noise in the playoffs,” McCrae said.

There are no guarantees this group will follow the path of its predecessors. The 1-9 season did not automatically produce a championship. The work done during and after it did.

That is the part McCrae wants these Knights to understand.

They are young. They are hurting. And they are learning.

Deerfield-Windsor has seen that story before, too.