COLUMN: What might have been in store for Freedom

When I was coaching basketball at Salem High School in 1960, our school and team faced a similar fate to the one that knocked Freedom High School out of this year’s state football playoffs.

We had a member of our squad who was accused of being ineligible by the school he attended the year before. He had moved into the Salem district to live with an aunt for personal reasons, as had another member of his family.

The aunt was a teacher at our school, and there was plenty of evidence our player’s move had nothing to do with basketball. He was a fine young man and a credit to our team, but played a reserve role for us. It was going to be our first championship team in boys sport, and you can imagine what we went through before the matter was eventually resolved in our favor.

My heart goes out to every young man on Freedom’s team, to every coach and administrator, to every student and parent and to all the team’s fans. This is a bitter pill to swallow.

I am very disappointed myself, as I thought this team could bring our county in first ever state title in football. I’m sure the closer you are to the team, the harder it is to get all this out of your mind. It was so sudden and final.

All season has been a buildup of the team’s success, week by week adding to their accomplishments. We’ve witnessed their climb up the top-10 state rankings, knowing their only loss was by one point to one of the best teams in the area (Burns).

Freedom’s berth in the playoffs was already secured, and the road ahead seemed paved with gold. Their great balance between offense and defense was evident to anyone looking for a weak spot. The Patriots were such am offensive machine that few high schools could ever dream of putting such a team on the field every Friday night.

It’s very special for a quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in one game. But Michael Helms did that three times in the last four weeks. Any one of his excellent receivers — Raymond Beam, David Duckworth, Marcus Kincaid or Khris Gardin — has piled up as many catches and touchdowns as many teams have totaled this fall.

The team also had a fine rushing game as well, based on all 11 players doing their jobs on every play as they knew a state championship was well within reach.

All of a sudden, everything changes on one play versus Chase. There’s an altercation near the opponents’ bench and five of our players are ejected. Some of our players make the mistake of leaving their benches to check out what’s going on. Coaches could remind their teams of these rules before every game and it still may happen.

However, when it does, there’s a big price to pay.

With all the trouble we’re having across the county at youth sporting events, these rules are more important now than ever. As harsh as it seems to us now, it’s absolutely essential that everybody — players who aren’t in the game and fans — stay in their area and not come on the field during or after a play.

Clarification from last week

Basketball coaches usually refer to the dates of their teams by the end of the school year date. Thus, a 1954-55 team is referred to as the ’55 team. Sometimes in my writing, I date a football team the same way. This is confusing, I must admit.

Last week, I referred to the Glen Alpine football team of 1954 by the graduating date of its senior class, 1955. I plan to use the fall date in the future.

Roy Waters is a sports columnist for The News Herald . Waters was baseball and basketball coach at Salem High School from 1955-66, where his teams won 18 championships. In 2007, he was inducted into the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.