At first it looked like just another 7 on 7 passing tournament on a steamy July day, but you just got the feeling that there was something special about the team in the dark green jerseys and gold helmets.Each team seemed to slide it up a notch when it was their time to face the team in green. It didn’t seem to matter that this was a weekday during the summer and not a Friday night in the fall. It didn’t seem to matter that some of that teams top players were away at camps on college campuses,nor did it matter that this was pass and catch and not a real football game.
What did matter was they were getting their turn to square off against the defending state AAAA champion Griffin Bears. New Head Coach Jarrett Laws expects it “There is a difference between paying as Griffin High School and playing as the 15-0 State Champion. They don’t care if you are the guy who is going to UGA or his backup, you are a Griffin guy so you are going to get their best game no matter what.That is what the kids are learning,they will get everybody’s Super Bowl game”.
The opponents also don’t seem very sympathetic to the emotional roller coaster that the guys in green have been on during the off season. The last time we saw the Griffin Bears play it was December 14th of last year at the Georgia Dome. Griffin beat Carrollton to claim the state AAAA state championship. It was the first state title for the Bears since 1978. Just 3 months later Head Coach Steve DeVoursney resigned after 13 years on the job as the Griffin program was investigated for alleged grade changing.
Laws, who launched the football program at Charles Drew High School in Clayton County,was called on to guide the team through a troubled situation and so far so good.”It’s been great, says Laws.The community has been real receptive, the kids have been very receptive.One thing they find out is the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
One thing that is sure to stay the same is the opposing team bringing their best when they face the team with the G on the helmet. Laws feels his team will be ready to put the tumultuous spring in it’s proper place and make another run at the state crown. ” If you want to be the man you have the beat the man, says Laws. We just have to recognize that we are the man every time we step onto the field. It is a role that has been placed upon us.”