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photo by Hannah Reel
The Trinity varsity football team runs drills during practice at the school Wednesday afternoon. The Saints dropped from Class AA to Class A this season, but still face a tough schedule.
Saints face tough football schedule in 2010
Published Friday, May 15, 2009
NATCHEZ — The Trinity Episcopal football team may have gone down a classification in the MPSA, but the Saints schedule for 2010 is in no way easier than it was this past season.
Trinity scheduled Class AAA East Rankin and five AA schools — Centreville Academy, Brookhaven Academy, Central Private, River Oaks and Prairie View Academy.
And head coach David King said nine of the 11 teams on Trinity’s schedule went to the playoffs last year.
“We have a real tough schedule this year, but that’s just part of the game,” King said. “We had a great time in AA, but we’re playing where they put us. Now we’re a Class A team.”
But even the A teams are cause for at least a little worry, King said.
“Huntington School is going to be good this year, and Tallulah is always solid,” he said. “Tallulah is much improved from last season.”
The Saints have already begun preparing for the 2010 season, which starts Aug. 21 against Prairie View.
Trinity has been in two to three hours of spring practice each day for the past two weeks, getting some early plans and plays set.
“We were in just shorts and helmets (Wednesday), but we’ve been in pads every other day,” King said. “We just had a real light Wednesday because it was hot as all get-out, and I had some guys who had exams. So we just went short and quick.”
And despite the Saints’ change in classification, or maybe because of it, the team’s goal for the season is the same it’s always been — win the state tournament.
“I have a group of seniors that steps up every year, and I feel I owe it to them to get there,” King said. “Our goal every year is we want our seniors to have a state championship. I owe it to every group that comes through here.”
The Saints were 11-2 last season with a 36-8 loss to Centreville in the final game of the regular season and a 30-7 loss to Oak Forest in the second round of the MPSA Class AA South State Playoffs.
And Trinity has lost several seniors from that team, including Wells Middleton, Jackson Bryant, Bryant Pearson and Larry Calcote, who signed with Northwestern State University.
“We did lose some really good players,” King said. “But that’s the same story every year. We have these great guys, and then they graduate. That’s just part of the game.”
Still, King is confident in his new team.
R.J. Fleming, Deacon Newman and Jordan Dossett will be the likely leaders in 2010, he said.
“Those are the three guys that I think are really committed, along with all the (soon-to-be) seniors who have played a lot of football in the last three years,” King said. “We’re really looking for those guys to step up.”
Givonni Dent will be in his second year at the quarterback position, and a lot of the positions are already locked down, King said.
The real work, he said, will be with linemen.
“This team’s got a lot of skilled players,” King said. “We’ve just got to develop some linemen. Our work ethic is there and we feel like this is another group that will have a special year.
“But we lost two really good linemen on both sides of the ball, and we’re going to have a young, inexperienced group up front. There will be potential for some of our young guys to really step up and take those positions.”
Comments
Posted by coacht (T.BOB KIRK) on May 15, 2009 at 9:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't make me cry. Let's see WCCA can't even compete in A and now they are AA. At least Trinity has a few athletes to pick from. WCCA needs to compete in 8 man. If WCCA wins 3 games it will be a good season.
Posted by reader (anonymous) on May 15, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WCCA is bigger than Trinity, that's why they are A and Trinity is AA. They should have more to choose from than Trinity.
Posted by ItsMeAgain (anonymous) on May 15, 2009 at 12:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Man…..Trinity and WCCA are wacky. They might have a good season with those little private schools but let them play a public school. They will get ran out the field. Why are these public school athletes going to the private school? So they can kill the competition. Yall with me on this one huh??? Yall remember Marcus Calcote?...... boy couldn’t do nothing with the public school, so he transfer to a little private school and put up unbelievable number. Where is he now????? Probably somewhere eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich….lol. Don’t hate me, Im just keeping it real….. Democrat please don’t delete this one……
Posted by raisinsaint (anonymous) on May 15, 2009 at 1:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess that poor ole dead horse will never get any rest.
Posted by reader (anonymous) on May 15, 2009 at 2:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Trinity competed very well against the public schools they played this year. Calcote went on to play at Co-Lin, and he put up some nice numbers there also.
Posted by ItsMeAgain (anonymous) on May 15, 2009 at 2:09 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by reader (anonymous) on May 17, 2009 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The players you named are good players, but Calcote did go on to have a solid 2 years at Co-Lin.
Posted by coacht (T.BOB KIRK) on May 18, 2009 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm with you ITSMEAGAIN. THese athletes that transfer over would be just a small fish in a big pond in public school. Trinity has a much larger pool to pull from than WCCA. Also more alumni money to pay their way.
Posted by Bull72 (anonymous) on August 1, 2009 at 2:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Looking at the comments that are posted,I disagree with ITSMEAGAIN. If you feel that your child is not getting the amount of playing time and exposoure then why not take him or her to a private school where he or she can get some reps and learn the game. I can gaurantee you that you have kids in Public schools that are good and sitting on the bench and talent is wasted because we have people like ITSMEAGAIN that make a big issue about where kids are playing. Yes you may blow the smaller schools out of the water if you were to play them but on a higher scale Natchez High has not been doing too well here for the last couple of season due to the fact that you have individuals with good talent going to the private sector to get the exposure. You are correct about one thing. If we as supporters of the game dont encourage the private schools and their ablity to expose kids to the game then they will be in a public school on the bench and still eating peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches. If we take a kid that is in a private school and play him on a consistant basis by his SR. year he is ready to compete on the next level, discipline,has developed some type of work ethic.Take a kid who has talent but did not make the cut on the public school level every once in a while getting in the game, by his SR. year he is not ready for the next level and if he does get picked up then he has to learn how to compete when he get there and with the wide spread of talent when you get to the college level he will soon quit because he has been sitting the bench his whole life. On an academic level I feel a private school is better in most cases because you have a better teacher / student ratio. But the main thing I would encourage is to get the kids to a point to where they would be able to compete on the next level in their classes and on the court or fields. Wheter it is in the private sector or public. If my son or daugther get a free education for what he does in high school so be it public or private because, the chance of them making it to the Pros is 1 out 200 and I am looking on a small scale do the math count how many kids from Natchez and the surrounding areas that has made it in the last 10 years. When I say from Natchez and surrounding areas I am talking about born and raised and went through the system ( Woodville, Ferriday,Videlia, Brookhaven to name a few cities or counties) Not to talk about the talent because we have great talent in the areas but the the bottom line is that the kids need the exposure wheter they can get it public or private SUPPORT IT .
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