By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
It was early in the season and the Haughton Buccaneers were off to a 3-0 start, when one of the team’s star players was being interviewed by a reporter. As just about every high school football player would, he mentioned that he was looking for the team to win the district championship.
The Bucs have a storied history, but in recent years maybe not so much. Haughton was a combined 9-21 in the previous three seasons and hadn’t even played for a district championship in 16 years.
When the interview was over and the player had left the room, head coach Matthew Sewell sheepishly mentioned, “you might want to hold off on the part about winning the district championship.”
And you could certainly see why. At the time, it did seem to be more than a little ambitious, but any coach, including Sewell, would certainly want his player to have that goal in mind.
Well, it’s the final week of the regular season and guess who is playing for the District 1-5A championship?
The Haughton Buccaneers.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Sewell said.
What isn’t crazy is who else is playing for the district championship – the Evangel Eagles. Those two will meet Friday night in Haughton and one will walk away with the top spot.
“If you would have told us in August that we’d be 8-1 and playing one of the most storied programs in the history of our state for a district championship at home,” Sewell says, “I think we all would have signed up for that.”
With Evangel bringing a history of 14 state championships into the game, it sets up an interesting comparison between the two teams. And you can start with the two coaches.
There’s a 44-year age difference between Sewell and Evangel’s Denny Duron, who is literally old enough to be Sewell’s grandfather.
“I love him,” Duron says of Sewell. “I think the world of him. What he’s done (at Haughton) in turning that thing around is pretty amazing.”
To say this is a dream come true for Sewell isn’t much of a stretch. The self-admitted “Haughton lifer” remembers the days playing video games with childhood friend (and current running backs coach) Cody Davis and talking about their future.
“We used to sit upstairs at my mom’s house when we were in high school and we would dream about this,” Sewell said “Being able to coach together at Haughton High School and to have the kind of season that we’re having this year. In reality, that’s pretty awesome.”
“I love their enthusiasm, their resilience,” Duron says of the Buccaneers. “They played hard when they were on the bottom and they are playing hard when they are on top. No difference in the way they approach the game.”
Even with last week’s stunning loss to Natchitoches Central – you don’t see an 8-0 team losing to a 0-8 team very often – Sewell said it hasn’t diminished the significance of this game one bit.
“Honestly, I’m kind of at a loss for words thinking about it,” Sewell said. “I’ve wanted to be the head football coach at Haughton since I was a little kid. To be here and have this opportunity, and to be able to do it at home in front of our crowd … Heck, I was in middle school the last time we won a district championship.”
“We hoped we could be in this position,” Duron said. “People say don’t get your hopes up, but I live my life the complete opposite of that. I want my kids to have high hopes. Great things could happen. They (the Bucs) have their hopes up too. I guess this will be a battle of hopes.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com