Braves football set for return Friday with early kickoff

Published 2:44 pm Friday, October 11, 2024

Is it like the start of a whole new season? Fingers are crossed, for it would be understandable if anyone takes the ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ approach to this coming Friday.

Almost one month since returning from a bitter-tasting 17-14 loss at Harlem High, Baldwin High School is scheduled to play its first game since on Friday at Braves Stadium. Since that Sept. 13 date, Kevin Patterson and the Braves had a bye week, but then disaster struck a portion of Georgia when the tropical system Helene swept through causing unprecedented damage to communities north, east and south of Milledgeville. This included areas where most of the schools in Baldwin’s region, 4-AAA, are located.

So there was no game with West Laurens, which suffered significant power outages, the following evening, Sept. 27. With so much damage in Augusta, there was no game Oct. 4 at Richmond Academy.

School officials announced Monday there will be a game this Friday against visiting Hephzibah, which is also in the Richmond County school district. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. per request of Hephzibah as there is a curfew in their area.

According to MaxPreps, the Hephzibah Rebels played the Harlem Bulldogs on Oct. 4 losing 44-17 for their fifth straight defeat. Baldwin has only played four games sporting a 1-3 mark.

In the previous two Mondays, there were announcements of football postponements leaving Patterson and his staff searching for creative ways to get the Braves through a full week of practice.

“It was a little deflating for the team when we did get the news,” said Patterson about last Monday. “We just tried to make practice fun, make it competitive. I think we got better just working on ourselves. The tempo was good. The energy was good throughout the week. We put the kids in game-like situations, good on good moreso than scout teams to make sure we got the competitive edge we want.”

For the current week, the Baldwin schools are on fall break, so the team gets its work in first thing in the mornings. Patterson said both Monday and Tuesday went well, so now it’s just hoping to avoid any more bad news, though another hurricane, Milton, became a category 5 Monday on its way to western Florida.

The Braves stayed interested and believed things would work out for the rest of the 2024 season. Will it feel, though, like starting over on Friday?

“I told the players, Sunday morning, getting up and preparing for a game, was almost weird,” said Patterson. “The past two Sundays have been like … I truly don’t have a game to prepare for. This week, I had to slap myself around and get back in my mojo, my old routine. But it’s fun to be working for something. I think the kids get a sense of that as well. We will be ready to play.”

Looking at Hephzibah, Patterson said they have big bodies on the line that will predominantly run the football on offense.

“A lot of quarterback run,” he said. “Creating that extra block offensively. Defensively, they are a 4-2. I told our team our goal every week from here on out is to be the most physical team. Impose our will on people.

“We have been blessed that we haven’t had to miss practices where other teams in the region haven’t been able to practice. Our thing is make sure we’re focused on us, and when our number’s called again we are ready to go.”

Patterson also announced one tentative make-up date. The Georgia High School Association allowed for make-up games to be played the weekend of Nov. 8 and moved the start of the state playoffs in football to Nov 15-16. So on Nov. 8, the coach said it is likely the Braves will play West Laurens.

“It is a fact: we have not played a game in a month,” said Patterson. “We’re ready to run around and throw our bodies into someone else other than our teammates.”