The undefeated Hillsborough Terriers will travel to face the 3-2 Sickles Gryphons on Friday, who are in a MUST WIN situation to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Terriers will be the favorites. Not by much, but will be favored to win this contest. Don’t tell the Gryphons that. There has not been a game they have played, where the team has not felt as if they could be victorious.
Last week, Sickles let an opportunity slip through their fingers as they led on the scoreboard vs. Armwood until the last minutes of the game. Sickles head football coach, Brian Turner comments on what the loss to Armwood meant to his team. “We had a rough day at practice yesterday (Monday). Guys still thinking about it. Kids are still down about a game you can’t do anything about. They were better at the end of practice. That’s what we are going to stress this week. If we lose, we are out the playoffs”.
The Sickles staff felt like the loss to Armwood was an opportunity that they should not have let get away. “We led the whole game until they scored their last touchdown. We felt like it was an opportunity lost. We had our chances. Just feels like we blew something. We lost an opportunity”, remarked coach Turner
WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEK?
Brian Turner: We are basically telling them, this is a playoff game. It’s pretty much, you win, you stay alive. You lose, you are playing for pride. That’s what our focus is right now. We are in the SEC. We went from Armwood, now we got Hillsborough, if we win this week, we have to get ready for Jefferson.
The Gryphons have come a long ways. Under Turner, Sickles is 18-9. 26-12 after Turner joined the staff in 2009. Prior, they were 0-10 in 2006, 7-4 in 2007 and 3-7 in 2008. However, they are not where Brian Turner wants them to be. “We want to be better. We could easily be 5-0 right now. I’ll take the blame against Wharton. I didn’t want to lose the game on a missed kick, when I thought we could punch it in on them. That’s learning as a head coach and having faith in people. We’re getting better. We are not where I want to be. I think we are going to get there though.”
WHO IS THAT GUY?
Brian Turner: Tony Valdez! He’s just like a coach on the field. The kids respect him. He’s got a lot of heart. You can’t just be a leader and lead by example anymore. That doesn’t work. You have to lead by your words also. A lot of people can lead by example but you have to have someone that the kids listen to. He is like a coach in the locker room. He keeps our team fired up. The guy that if you put our team in the locker room and locked the door, he would be the one that came out. If you said, ok you guys have to fight your way out, he would be the one that came out!