After Adams County Christian School dropped to 0-5 earlier this season, the Rebels faithful were left to pray for divine intervention to salvage the season.

According to head coach Bo Swilley, whose Rebels are headed into the playoffs in two weeks, those prayers were answered.

&uot;I’d like to take some credit for it,&uot; Swilley said, &uot;but the Lord worked things out – bottom line.&uot;

A never-say-die team attitude played a role in the Rebs’ turnaround, Swilley added.

&uot;It just shows that without some bad breaks early on, we could have had a much better record,&uot; he said. &uot;They just never quit.&uot;

Swilley also credited his coaching staff. &uot;I’m a blessed man. I work with good people,&uot; he said.

&uot;(South Carolina coach) Lou Holtz once hired a coach and people asked him if he was worried about that guy being smarter and taking over as coach,&uot; Swilley said. &uot;Holtz said, ‘Why on earth would I hire somebody who didn’t know more about this than I do?’ That’s what I’ve tried to do with the folks around me.&uot;

Swilley credits the Rebels’ unlikely trip to the post-season to just about everyone except himself – a typical response for a former offensive lineman, he said.

&uot;A lineman doesn’t always get a lot of glory,&uot; he said. &uot;It makes you more humble, more sensitive to other people.&uot;

A Ferriday, La., native, Swilley attended ACCS before attending and playing offensive tackle for then-Northeast Louisiana University in Monore, La.

He teaches health and history at ACCS in addition to coaching golf and football, in which he has the interesting opportunity to coach his own son, junior offensive lineman Brent Swilley.

&uot;It’s hard on him,&uot; the father of two said. &uot;You expect so much. It seems like you expect more from your own than you do from others.

&uot;You’re not as patient,&uot; he continued. &uot;You don’t mean to, but it just turns out that way.

&uot;But I wouldn’t trade it.&uot;

Swilley was faced with a situation no coach or father hopes to see earlier this season when Brent tore a piece of cartiladge in his knee.

&uot;You hate it,&uot; Swilley said. &uot;As a coach, you’re losing a player, but your parental instinct is saying your son is hurt.

&uot;It’s hard to separate the two,&uot; he said. &uot;As a coach, you want to get him back in three weeks, but as a father you worry about bringing him back too soon, and possibly getting injured worse.&uot;