With zero wins on the scoreboard this year, the Princess Anne High School football team continues to strive to improve their program. Although the team had a few bumps in the road, including their forfeit early in the season to Green Run, the team was able to come back and improve on seasons past.
Head coach Phillip Sims says their main goal this season was to simply improve on the previous year. “We had spurts last season where we could see some improvement and development, so we kind of just wanted to further that this year and continue to build and grow,” he explained. Defensive Coordinator James Perish adds on, stating their goal was to “build [on] that foundation, and add another layer onto the foundation to make us a winning football team.”
Soon into the season though, a lot of attention was drawn to the team after announcing they were forfeiting their Sept. 13 game against number one of the Beach, Green Run. Rumors began to spread as to the cause of the forfeit and if the team would be finished for the season. Sims explains the forfeit really came down to numbers, injuries, and what was best for the players. “Through a football season you’re gonna have some injuries, you’re gonna have some guys who just can’t [play], can’t go every single week,” said Sims. “We had to kind of look at what was best for the team and what was best for those that were healthy.” This then led to the coaches deciding to pull out of the game.
Running back and captain junior RJ Allen adds “the forfeit? Simple. We didn’t have enough people to play. We were forced to forfeit.” While the it caused some disappointment in fans of the program, a forfeit doesn’t seem like something to happen again, according to Perish. “We’ve got a lot of additions here that, you know, it eases that thought of it…happen[ing] going forward.”
Then from disappointment came motivation. Allen says the team came back even stronger from this unfortunate event. Running back and captain senior AJ Martin says the team saw the forfeit as an opportunity to come back stronger and work harder. “We came back by putting in two times the work getting ready for the next game,” he explained.
Soon after, they did see some success compared to their previous games. In their first game after the forfeit on Sept. 20 against Landstown, they were able to keep the game tied 8-8 until the second half. Soon after, the Cavs were almost a touchdown away (13-20) from a tie with First Colonial on their Oct. 4 game.
As PA faced off against some harder teams towards the end of the season, Sims explains the role of motivation for the team. “A lot of this is self motivated, but we do try to use some week to week things…based on close games, close losses, close wins, whatever the situation is.” He feels that a lot of the motivation the team has comes from their love of the game. “I motivate my team by communicating with them and showing them that football is more than just a game,” Martin added.
Throughout the season, the team also improved in numbers following advertising after the forfeit. According to Perish, they are often getting new players coming out to play for the team, which opens up more opportunities for the future. “Honestly, the sky’s the limit,” he said. Sims also discusses the need for players to continue to come out in order for the program to be successful within the next few years. He mentioned, “if the numbers continue to grow, you have some talent, you have some guys that you can develop into some really good football players.”
