2011 Game 5 vs Andalusia

This weekend we are celebrating the 20th year anniversary of the 1991 4A State Champions.  It was our third championship but the first for me as a head coach.  What made the season so special was the heartbreaking loss in the championship the year before.  We made it all the way back to the championship game and got a chance to play the same team....Deshler. They had a 28 game winning streak. I knew we had some strong leadership in our senior captains, Gerald Thomas and Willie Smith.  We were hungry to get back to the championship game and T.R. Miller football meant a lot to both of them.

It was a Saturday morning in November of 1991 and was headed to Milton, Florida with Gerald and Willie. I was pretty tired.  We had just got back the night before from Daleville where we had won our second playoff game 16-14.  Willie had injured his knee during the game and I wanted Dr. Michael Hartsfield to evaluate it and I was afraid that it might be bad news.  Gerald's knee had been bothering him for a while so I told him to come along. Dr. Hartsfield had been treating our players for several years and was the best around.  We arrived and they got us right in the office.  This was many years before the days of the MRI and Dr. Hartsfield could check a knee and tell you what was wrong in no time. He looked at Willie and told him he thought he just had a knee sprain.  Stay off of it and do some rehab he might be able to play in two weeks.

Then he checked Gerald's knee. "Wow," he said. It wasn't a good "wow".  "You've been playing on this?" he asked him.  Gerald just shook his head yes.  It was swollen pretty good. "Well", he said, "you've got a badly sprained ligament. Maybe a slight tear.  And I think you've torn the meniscus.  Been hurting pretty good?"  Gerald didn't say anything.  Dr. Hartsfield looked at me.  "Maybe with some rehab, he stays off of it, it might strengthen enough he could play in 3 weeks.  If he can stand the pain of the meniscus tear.  Aren't you trying to get back to the championship game? He might could play then."  I looked at Gerald.  I had always heard people talk about crocodile tears but I hadn't seen any for a long time. Until now.  Dr. Hartsfield swallowed hard.  "Let me look at it again."  He twisted and turned it and Gerald was still crying.  He looks up at our big #58. "I tell you what," Dr. Hartsfield said.  "We rehab it, get him a brace to wear, he might could play in two weeks." I slowly looked over at Gerald again.  Maybe that would make him feel better. We were playing Pike County the next week and they were really good. Maybe we could beat the Bulldogs without Willie and Gerald.

By now the tears were rolling down his arms onto the table.  No one said anything.  Gerald just looked at Dr. Hartsfield and kept crying.  It was then that I realized it was not just about playing in a football game.  Sometimes in life we make great promises to ourself.  We promise to do everything possible to achieve a goal of some kind if for no other reason than to prove to ourselves than we can do it.  And Gerald had made a great promise to himself to get his football team back to the championship game.  And we were close.  Pain and injury was just like the other obstacles we had encountered to get where we were at the time. Two wins away from the championship game.

Gerald just kept looking at Dr. Hartsfield.  He took his knee and looked at it for a third time.  The voice of the good doctor broke the silence. "OK," he said. "Stay off of it, I"ll get Ross (Dr. Hartsfield's trainer) to check it Thursday.  Wear a brace, no practice, let's see where you are Thursday."

The tears stopped.

On Monday I wouldn't let Gerald do anything at practice. On Tuesday he dressed out so he could feel like part of the team. We go to offensive practice and I step in the huddle to call a play. Gerald is in the huddle. "Get out, we'll see how you are tomorrow." He pouted as he limped out.  We went on with practice but it wasn't the same without him. The next day we are practicing in shoulder pads and shorts.  He watches and listens but you can tell he is in agony.  Most players would love to sit out practice with the possible opportunity to play on Friday. But Gerald Thomas was not most players in November of 1991.  He was fulfilling a promise to himself.

Time for offensive practice and everyone saw him get in the huddle. I looked at Terence Samuel our quarterback to call the first play. I look up and there he was. In football sometimes there are moments that define a season. It is usually a play or a loss or something that tends to bring a team together for a common purpose. To this day I believe it was this moment that sent us hurdling in the direction of the state championship. "Please, please, please don't make me get out," he said. I thought he was going to cry again. There was absolute silence on the practice field. Everyone was waiting to see what happened next. As a coach you only have a moment to think. You try to combine your experience with your desire to do the right thing while you heart pleads something different. I looked him right in the eye.  I understood that he had made this great promise that was really more about other people than himself. It was time for me to make a promise to him. " I promise that I will never take you out of this huddle again, " I said.  "Never".

Two weeks later we were in the state championship game vs Deshler.  We had a big lead and they had the ball on our 35 or 40 yard line.  Gerald had limped through the game but somehow managed to play this terrific at guard and defensive end.  Deshler ran a play and the QB took the ball toward him and he struck this big lick. Ball went on the ground and we recovered.  It was time to take him out.  There is this great picture in my office at home.  Gerald and I are standing on one end of the field away from everyone else as the last minutes of the championship game are played.  We were having our own huddle. A big smile had replaced those crocodile tears.

I have kept my promise. Gerald Thomas has been in the huddle at T.R. Miller since that Wednesday afternoon.  His spirit radiated over that whole team and that same spirit is with our team today.  There is an old saying in boxing..."champions are not made in the ring, they are only crowned there." We were crowned champions on December 13, 1991.  But I always believe that we won the championship two weeks earlier when we formed a huddle around one player who had made a great promise to himself.