CLINTON – Most teams never fully realize their dreams.

Today, David King’s Trinity Episcopal Saints are living proof that with grit, guts and determination, those dreams do come true.

The Saints capped an unbelievable and spectacular season by reaching the top of the football mountain by virtue of a 14-7 win over the Wayne Academy Jaguars in Saturday’s Mississippi Private School Association Academy A state championship.

A raucous Natchez contingent that made the trip to Robinson-Hale Stadium, stayed on their feet from opening kick, to final gun and the Saints rewarded them by giving not only Trinity Episcopal, but the City of Natchez as well, its first state championship since 1989, when this same institution brought it home.

&uot;I’ll tell you, we just wanted it a lot more than they did,&uot; an elated King said. &uot;I think this is the start of something special, and I’m glad all these great people were able to come out and support and share it with us. I’m just going to sit back and enjoy this. There wasn’t much coaching to this, just a lot of hungry players, that really wanted this badly.&uot;

The Saints controlled the line of scrimmage virtually throughout, and got scoring runs of 14 and 1 from all-everything player Chad Ridley, the game’s Most Valuable Player, before a staunch Saint defense thwarted a final series from the Jags.

On fourth down, with the clock inside a half-minute, quarterback Stephen Wood threw his third fourth straight incompletion and the long awaited championship finally belonged to Trinity.

As the fans and players mobbed the field, King could only sit back and watch with wide-eyed amazement at the result of a myriad of hard work since mid-July.