Safety credits film study, coach at home for his success
BATESVILLE — Southside Batesville, which went winless in 2010 and ’ 14 and won just 14 games from 2010-15, made a big move in 2016.
The Southerners won eight games and reached the Class 4A state playoffs for the first time, beating Booneville in the opening round before closing 8-4.
But the 2017 season was even better.
In just their 12th year of football, the Southerners won a school-record 10 games and tied for the 2-4A Conference championship, their first title. They won the tiebreaker over Stuttgart and Heber Springs for the league’s top seed and hosted their first playoff game, beating Gentry, 42-13, before falling to Arkadelphia, the eventual state champion, 42-8, to close 10-2.
“It’s been a long road, so it was good,” said Kenny Simpson, the Southerners’ sixth-year coach. “There were lots of firsts. It’s neat to finally get to the point we were wanting to get to.
“Now we want to work to maintain it.”
As a sophomore in 2016 and a junior last fall, safety/ wingback Caden Huskey was a big part of that success, and he’ll be a key cog as the Southerners try to improve in 2018. Huskey, 6-1, 195, is the
Three Rivers Edition Defensive Player of the Year for 2017.
“[2016] was the first positive season Southside had ever had, and this year we continued to build on it,” he said. “It was a really good step for Southside. Next year, we hope to go further.”
As a junior, Huskey recorded 116 tackles, including 76 solo; 8 pass deflections; 4 interceptions; and 1 forced fumble. As a sophomore, he had 127 tackles and 7 interceptions.
“He seems to be around every big play,” Simpson said. “A lot of it is his intelligence and work ethic. He’s a real hard worker.
“He’s really a kid who maximizes his potential. There are probably faster and bigger kids, but Caden just seems to know how to be around the football.”
Huskey said because of his film study, he was usually in the right place at the right time.
“I’m usually there to make a play,” he said. “Once I do, after the first play, I make a tackle, I get in a zone, and it feels like I can do anything.”
The Southerners, who were picked to finish fourth in the league, first gained attention with their conference-opening 21-7 win over Stuttgart, which had been picked first. Southside started 7-0 before falling at Heber Springs, 17-14. Stuttgart had beaten the Panthers for the three-way tie.
Offensively, Huskey ran for 648 yards and 13 touchdowns on 109 carries and caught 17 passes for 308 yards and 4 TDs.
As a sophomore, he had 47 carries for 441 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Huskey came to Southside as an eighth-grader after his mother, Julie, married Brian Reardon, one of Simpson’s assistants.
“You can definitely tell he’s the son of a coach,” Simpson said. “His football intelligence is off the charts.”
Huskey said once Reardon married his mother, he wanted to watch his stepson play football.
“I was playing at Batesville, and he was always coaching that night, so this seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.
So how is it having his stepfather as a coach?
“It’s pretty cool,” Huskey said. “We’ve gotten pretty
close over the years. I make a big play, and we chest-bump on the sideline. It’s a cool thing to have your role model down there on the sideline with you.”
He said his family life has made him a better player.
“It comes easy when you have a football coach living with you,” Huskey said. “We spend hours in the film room every day during football
season. I guess it helps just being smart in school, too.”
A 4.0 student, Huskey said he was “the guy back there communicating what kind of defense we were going to be running, making sure everyone knew what we were going to be running.”
He said it would be “really cool” to play college football.
“I’d be totally fine having to work for it,” he said.
Simpson said he thinks Huskey will be recruited as a linebacker/tight end.
Until this year, he was a
three-sport athlete. He gave up basketball for his junior season but plays outfield for the baseball Southerners.
Simpson said the Southerners will return 25 rising seniors and 30 rising juniors for 2018.
“It’s a good little wave,” he said. “Obviously, Caden will be a big part of that. Actually, he’s a better kid than he is a football player. That makes it fun to coach. When your best players are unselfish, you can win a lot of games.
“Caden epitomizes that.”