Trojan future, now
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 2, 2008
Tomorrow’s fate lies in today’s children. That goes for everything from government to football. This has proven to be especially true for the Charles Henderson High School football program.
The children in this case are the young managers that run the sidelines and have a blast during ball games. They run balls onto the field. They haul water bottles around to guys they look up to and they want to one day suit up in Trojans uniforms.
“I’m real excited about playing when I grow up,” Zack Scott said.
Scott is a fifth grader, and his older brothers were Trojans.
“Coach Fountain asked me if I wanted to run balls in and out every play,” Scott said. “I like doing this.”
The guys are a part of the team, and they go everywhere with the Trojans. They travel on road games, and they hang out with the team before home games.
“We hang out and play games,” Cobi Jones said. “I like coming up here, and I have learned a lot about football.”
Patrick Jackson has slightly different goals for his high school athletic career, but he loves his current job as a Trojan manager.
“I want to play tennis,” Jackson said. “I like football a lot, but I’m pretty good at tennis.”
Just like the team, the guys have fond memories from highlights of Trojan football.
Some of the highlights are what the team does and some of the highlights are certain memories they have of their own adventures at football games.
“I was real excited when we made the playoffs last week,” De-Andre Pitts said. “I really liked it when we played Carroll too. We won big in that game.”
Head coach Hugh Fountain’s oldest son, H.T., is a manager as well and he is ready to play football for his dad.
“I’m real excited about playing one day,” Fountain said.
Fountain wants to be a linebacker on his dad’s team, and he too wants to eventually coach football.
Manager Tobias Youngblood summed it all up with one statement.
“We’re ready to play high school football, and we’re gonna win,” Youngblood said.
If history repeats itself like it always has, these young Trojans will be tomorrow’s brightest orange and blue stars.
If one needs proof of this, it only takes a look back at former managers through the years.
Jawara White, Lequintez Reynolds, Zeb Swindall, Billy Neal and Dustin Smith are just a few of the current Trojan playmakers that were yesterday’s Trojan managers.