ALL-GARLAND COUNTY FALL SPORTS
MOUNTAIN PINE — While most coaches across the country were worried that they would not get to finish the season due to COVID-19, Mountain Pine head coach Sam Counce was worried that he was going to end up replaying his first year at the school.
In 2016, his first year at the helm of the program, the Red Devils took the field just twice, forfeiting eight of their 10 games due to the fact that he had just 15 players on the roster. During the summer, Counce averaged just 13 players who regularly attended practice, which led him to consider eight-man football.
“Looking back with our numbers situation, probably we were lucky and fortunate that we went eight- man because, numbers-wise, I’m not sure we’d been able to finish the year, you know, going through that gauntlet,” he said. “Our goals changed, you know, whenever our numbers are down, and we were very fortunate to be — we were lucky that Trinity Christian backed out or got out. We just filled their spot, or we might not have been able to play football this year. So a lot of things fell into place for us this year. I guess, you know, the stars lined up, you know, and as you know, sometimes that’s just the way it is, and you’re lucky.”
Because the Red Devils made the switch to eight-man football, not only did they get to play football this year and make the playoffs, but they picked up a state title, despite missing three games due to players being quarantined. Counce is the 2020 All- Garland County Coach of the Year, his second time to receive the honor after taking the team to the playoffs his second season with the team.
“I’m very flattered,” he said. “I mean, I’m probably more excited now about it, just because the transition and COVID and 2020 and all that stuff. … Whereas before, you know, that’s good, you know, and stuff, but this time it was, it was special.”
At first, when the coaching staff made the decision to shift to eight-man football, Counce said that he was almost disappointed for the team.
“Whenever you play 11-man and being competitive, and we have, and then you say, ‘ Oh, we’re going eight- man,’ you know, it’s like it takes the wind out of your sail kinda and the pep out of your step, I guess. … Sure, we want to play 11-man, but, you know, it’s a great alternative for the kids who play, and it’s fun. And, you know, with our number situation, it worked great. I mean, you know, at the end of the year, we ended up with two ninth graders moved up. So we had 20 kids; we were dressing 17 and 18 a week.”
Counce said that after talking with other coaches of eight-man football teams, he decided to try to keep things as close to the same as possible.
“We meet on Saturday mornings,” he said. “Coaches meet on Sunday. We did, we
did all that, just like 11-man. So I tried to simulate 11-man as much as I could, you know, just to keep everybody. You know, if I had short practices, and we didn’t stay late, or anything like that, you know, the kids would have got that feeling, too. You know, and they’re a reflection of us as coaches, so I tried to make sure that our work ethic was there, and everything was pretty much the same.”
The transition went well, especially once his seniors started to really buy in.
“Once I could see them kind of buying into it, I knew it was gonna be okay,” he said. “Because, you know, we made a conscious effort as coaches to be positive, to make sure, you know, to treat it like it was something good, and it was.”
Mountain Pine’s first foray into the world of eight-man football was against a tried- and- true Episcopal Collegiate team that left the Red Devils with a 64-52 loss on Sept. 11.
Their next setback happened on Sept. 22 when one of the players on the team contracted COVID-19, forcing the entire team and coaching staff to quarantine for two weeks, forcing them to miss three games.
“The kids go home for two weeks, and they — you know, they’re kids,” he said with a laugh. “They’re not going to get up and do anything. And we come back and play that next week. And I think that’s when we played Woodlawn. And we played well. But as coaches, we tried to change some things too, because we got beat by Episcopal because we wasn’t in shape for eight-man football. So we did more running, and we subbed a lot more. You know, we learned from our mistakes. And I think that helped us a lot, too.”
The Red Devils continued to battle before finally facing off against Spring Hill in the 2A Eight- Man Football State Championship.
After the Bears responded to Mountain Pine’s opening salvo with a touchdown to pull within 8-6, the Red Devils found their footing, taking a 30-12 halftime lead en route to a 62-34 win.
Counce said that every time the phone would ring, he was afraid that there would be more bad news regarding players or coaches that would have to quarantine.
“There’s so many variables in there that our kids would be exposed to,” he said. “And every time group came up, whether it’s basketball, cheerleaders, or whatever, you were like, this is probably it. You know, we’re probably fixing to go home. But when we would meet on Saturdays, you know, we’d go over, ‘Hey, guys, just stay at home. Stay away from people. Don’t go anywhere, do anything.’ Because, I mean, you just never know who you’re going to be exposed to.”
Counce said that he wishes that eight-man football had been an option his first year at Mountain Pine, taking over a program that had played for three different coaches in three years.
“Being a first time head coach, you come to a place you’re excited,” he said. “And, you know, I thought I could will those kids into coming out and being here. You know, I realized then that, you know, that wasn’t the case at all. That year in that situation, it was the right thing to do. And we’d have gone eight-man if it was available at that time, but it wasn’t available then.”
Looking forward, Counce hopes to see good things, but he has several key players graduating in May.
“But we’ve got a good group of 10th graders,” he said. “And you know, we’ve got two running backs — Isaiah Miles in Keelan Dobbins, and those two guys in eight-man, they make the difference because they could, at any point in time they touch the ball, they can go all the way. We’re going to have to replace our quarterback, and that’s a tough, tough deal. You know, we’re going to have to change some things up probably, just to fit that position.
“But I think, if we go in with the right attitude, and you know, I want my kids to play tough and play hard. And if I can get that accomplished, I think we’ll be OK. I think we’ll compete for it. To say we’ll win it, I wouldn’t. I’d never do that just because, you know, that’s probably an omen, but we still have some good talent. And those young kids have got success.”