Everyone fumbles in the beginning.

When I received the phone call from Natchez head coach Melvin Pete about how his team did in the Hazelhurst jamboree, Pete raved about the potential of freshman quarterback Chris Scott. He also said that he had a costly turnover, fumbling the snap and turning the ball over in the 16-6 loss.

The phone call forced me to remember a time in the summer when I was still fresh at handling my daily sports reporting duties. In covering a 7-on-7 event that pitted Cathedral High School, Natchez High School and Ferriday High School against one another, I discovered the scoop. Heading into the summer, Sidney Davis was named the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs.

Davis, who is known for his athletic prowess among the high school ranks (I would argue he’s the most athletic player in the area), was going to play quarterback after gaining some playing time at the position last year. Davis is a natural wide receiver, but is more than capable of providing an offensive spark from the gun.

Instead of finding Davis taking the snaps and airing it out, a tall, thin freshman was fitting the ball into tight windows, raising my eyebrows in the process. I later found that Scott was being prepared to start for the Bulldogs as a freshman. Well, that’s an easy score in terms of writing, right?

I interviewed Scott, who is a really bright kid and fun to talk to, and I ran my story the next day. Now, before I came to The Natchez Democrat, I covered the Southeastern Conference for Bleacher Report, and in doing so, I wrote about Ole Miss’ Jeff Scott frequently. Just by habit, I wrote Jeff Scott instead of Chris Scott in my story, fumbling the ball at the goal line and turning the ball over to the commenters who love to point out mistakes.

The point of that short anecdote is this — whether you’d like to admit it or not, we all stumble at times, especially when we start new journeys. Life is less about the hiccups and more about the way we respond to our stumbles, though.

Fast forward to Friday night’s contest against Wilkinson County.

Here, I find a player that’s only a freshman, has a brand new coach and is going to start for a 5A school. You know how Chris responded to his fumbled exchange in the jamboree?

Well, the opening possession saw Scott unable to handle a poor snap that got by him. The ball was recovered by the Wildcats. Instantly, Scott’s resiliency was challenged. Scott shook off the jitters and revisited the fundamentals, wowing me in the process.

Going into the game, I knew Scott could sling it, which was well represented in his 9 of 15 passing for 143 yards and two touchdowns to go along with two interceptions, but little did I know he would execute the read option so brilliantly. Given the option to either hand to the running back or keep it for a quarterback scamper based off of the defensive end’s reaction, Scott looked less like a freshman and more like a young Russell Wilson Friday night.

Resembling a Super Bowl winning quarterback in the slightest doesn’t happen without extensive preparation. Credit Pete for working every day with Scott during the summer to get him acclimated to making the correct read that would produce runs of 10 yards or more from either him or running back John Ferguson.

Speaking of Pete, he was pretty impressed with his young quarterback’s first start.

“Ninth grader throwing multiple touchdowns?” Pete asked. “Come on, it’s all good.”

As for Scott’s confidence level after his first start, well, let’s just say it’s climbing.

“It’s playoff high right now,” Scott said.

Let’s hope Scott’s self-confidence delivers postseason life for the Bulldogs.

 

JAKE MARTIN is the sports editor for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or jake.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.