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Monday, September 1, 2008
Under a dark cloud
Central Oklahoma, OK
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Del City football hasn’t won in years, it’s one of the smallest schools in Class 6A. There are plenty of reasons on why the Eagles will struggle, but they’re not making excuses
Nick Warehime looks at his team and his words come easily.
“We’ll be successful,’’ he says. “I just know it. We’re closer than we were. We’re going to be OK.’’
Then, the Del City coach looks at the parking lot and his words come slower.
Eight cars total in the lot for the 50-plus kids who scrimmaged at Del City High just a few weeks ago.
“Do I like my spot?,’’ Warehime asked. “Yeah. I love my kids, but you’re really against the odds in a place like this.’’
At Del City, where 42 percent of all the students are on some sort of free or reduced-pay lunch plan, where about 15 of his players are able to drive to school and where there hasn’t been a winning season since 2000, the Eagles are playing for the same Class 6A state title as Jenks and Tulsa Union.
They just aren’t playing the same game.
“I just think we have a different understanding of life,’’ says senior Andy Navarro, who is also in line to be the class valedictorian with his plus-4.0 GPA. “We have guys who play football, but a lot of them work for their families, too.’’
And that’s where the game changes. Warehime estimates about four of his kids had enough money over the summer to spend on diet supplements. Hardly anyone has a car, and almost everyone is used to losing. Del City hasn’t won more than four games in a season since 2000.
“I get it,’’ Warehime said. “I do. I know there are issues like this at every school, but our kids want to do all the same things everyone else does, they just can’t really afford it. There are issues here that they face that you may not see in another school.’’
While lots of high school football players all over the state have jobs, at Del City, the kind of job senior J.J. Hugine has is a different kind. Hugine doesn’t know his father, lives with his mom and knows if he doesn’t come up with money for college – short of a scholarship - he’s not going.
“Football gets me out of this,’’ Hugine said. “That’s why it matters. It gets us away from worrying about all that other stuff.’’
All that other stuff includes a school that ranks 30th out of 32 schools in population, making the quest to compete in the top-heavy Class 6A even more of a battle. All that other stuff includes worrying about family first and football second – the kind of things most high school football players don’t concern themselves with.
“I bet more than half of the players here over the past few years have had to quit because they are working for their families,’’ Navarro said. “And that’s not that odd around here. But I don’t think it happens in a lot of other places.’’
None of those reasons, jobs, enrollment, money, are used as an excuse at Del City, either by Warehime or his players, but when the playing field is different everywhere except between the lines on Friday night, winning becomes tough.
“It comes down to resources,’’ says former coach Jeff Craig who was at Del City from 1999 to 2006. “Why do some kids do better academically? Some of it has to do with resources and some to do with socio-economics. Some schools have all they need academically and athletically. Look at the kids. They have situations where they can’t go to camps and do the things like that or get a personal trainer. Some of those resources are not available. In some respects, you do the best with what you got. There are places where they have all the equipment or access to the things they need. Some of our kids were just glad they got dinner.’’
Tough, but not impossible.
Unlike in 2000 when Del City was recovering from the tornado of May of 1999 and trying to deal with the new after school athletics, Del City has a coach in its second year and is back with in-school athletics. All of that helps.
“I think they can win again,’’ Craig said. “I have confidence in him. He knows what he’s doing. It’s going to take time. I think they can get there. It’s not impossible. I had been there long enough, it was time for some new blood and someone to come in with new blood and somebody who could step in and was ready to put in the four or five years it would take to rebuild. It can happen with some fresh ideas and maybe working it a little bit differently.’’
That process has begun. Warehime says his team will surprise this season. He says his team could challenge for a playoff spot.
“Hey the odds are stacked against these kids here,’’ he says. “But they don’t know that. Every game we play the schools we play are bigger than us. Some are twice as large. But you know what we tell them?
“They can only put 11 out there at a time.’’
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