Sports

WC NOT WANTING TO BE MEAL OF 6A SOUTH

By Troy Schulte/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, October 10, 2008 10:21 AM CDT

George Shelton knows the pecking order among the teams in the 6A South Conference. And he knows his Watson Chapel team — at least this season — is not at the top looking down.

That was made evident the last two weeks when the Wildcats dropped their first two conference games. Watson Chapel lost 49-14 to El Dorado Sept. 26 and 48-0 to Pine Bluff a week ago.

What Shelton and his team is trying to avoid is being among the teams on the bottom of the eight-team conference or, as he put it, among the teams being eaten.

“There are several teams in the conference who are looking to eat each other as a meal,” he said. “So we better have our appetite right Friday night, if we want to move forward.”

Shelton’s Wildcats (1-3-1, 0-2) host Little Rock Fair (0-5, 0-2) at Wildcat Stadium tonight, with the hopes of not becoming the only team in the conference to lose its first three games.

Shelton said he can’t, at this point in the season, say that Watson Chapel is a “good football team.” What he can say though — and won't hesitate to do so — is say that his team has shown flashes of production several times this season and is not yet ready to alter his preseason goal of reaching the playoffs.

“I do feel that we’re a good football team in the making,” Shelton said. “We’re just going to let it play out. We’ve got five games to go and we feel like we can still do the right things to make the playoffs.”

One of the things that has hindered Watson Chapel so far this season is the health of one of his running backs. Kevin Johnson entered this season as one of the most experienced players on offense. But the senior suffered a high-ankle sprain in the season-opening loss to Warren, and hasn’t been the same since.

Though Nick Vanderbilt has filled in well for Johnson, Shelton would definitely rather have two completely healthy backs. Johnson is coming off his best week of practice since the injury and Shelton said has made cuts that have encouraged the coaches.

A healthy Johnson will go a long way toward Watson Chapel getting its first conference win of the season.

“Right now I see snapshots of what we can be,” Shelton said. “We need to make a movie instead of taking pictures. This thing needs to be continuous.”

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