Richard Bush sounded a lot like a coach talking about a tough gridiron opponent when he described how Hurricane Helene affected his North Augusta football team.
“I feel like we did get hit in the mouth with the hurricane at a tough time,” the Yellow Jackets’ head coach said. “We were starting to play more consistent football in all three phases of the game when it hit us, so it did throw a little wrinkle in our plan.”
By the time the Yellow Jackets take the field against SCHSL Region 4-AAAA opponent Airport on Oct. 17, it will have been almost one solid month since they played a football game.
That last matchup was on Friday, Sept. 20 when North Augusta knocked off Gilbert 37-14 in its region opener. The following Friday, everything shutdown in the aftermath of Helene’s rumble through the CSRA.
First things first
Of course, Bush and his coaching staff shifted focus from winning football games to making sure their players and families were okay.
“You know, it’s been hectic,” Bush said. “A lot of people have been affected, of course. We had some guys whose houses were damaged pretty good. As a team, we’re always talking about taking care of each other, so obviously, in a situation like this, goal number one was making sure everybody was okay.”
It’s safe to say that goal number two was being able to get his bunch back out onto the football field and into a sense of normalcy as soon as it was safe to do so.
That goal was accomplished Monday as North Augusta returned to practice to knock off some Helene hiatus rust and prepare to finish the season as strong as it started.
A one point loss to SCHSL Class AAAAA Lexington in the second game of the season is the only thing separating North Augusta from the ranks of the undefeated. Aside from that, the 4-1 Jackets have scored impressive victories against Thomson, South Aiken, Strom Thurmond and Gilbert.
The second half of the season slate features teams that have met various levels of struggle so far, but North Augusta’s biggest challenges going forward may not be quality of opponent as much as it is frequency of play.
In order to make up for the several weeks of inaction, North Augusta will have to play three games in an eight-day period. It’s at Airport on Oct. 17, then at Aiken on Oct. 21 and then back home against Brookland-Cayce on Oct. 25 before finishing with Midland Valley and Gray Collegiate on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8.
A schedule grind
Most coaches and athletic directors will tell you that it’s anything but ideal to put football players in a situation where they’re playing multiple games in basically a week’s time. But it’s necessary in order to be able to qualify for the postseason.
Several schools across the CSRA are in a similar boat, which means coaches are going to have to deftly navigate the balancing act of getting players reps in contact and keeping their legs and bodies as fresh as possible for the grind.
“This week, we got back together Monday and just went over some fundamental stuff,” Bush said. “It was kind of like the first day of school. The guys hadn’t seen each other in a while, and they were excited about being around their teammates again.
“Yeah, you saw some rust out there, but we’ll gradually shake that off and get back to game planning for our upcoming game with Airport and start looking more like us.”
Bush said it was helpful that Helene came during what was a natural bye week for the team anyway. But natural disasters and Mother Nature aren’t things within their scope of control, so Bush opts to keep his team focused on what they can control.
Playoff push time
“We talk about it each and every day — control what you can control,” he said. “That’s what we’ve stressed this week. Each and every day, continue to get better. You want to make that gradual climb up the mountain.”
And the coach thinks this squad has a chance to make a pretty tall climb before this season is said and done.
“This team is talented,” he said. “And I believe we have a good chance to really make some noise if we can stay healthy and stay focused each and every day. Just keep getting better each day. It’s not always a long term goal you focus on. Sometimes, you get better in the short term.”
