By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When faced with adversity, there are only two outcomes. Either you beat it or it beats you.

Overcoming adversity does two things for athletes. It helps them grow as an athlete and as a person. Teams and individuals both have to learn to be resilient. As an individual athlete, you have to overcome things such as injuries or an emotional loss. As a team you may have to overcome a losing streak or slump. Resilience is how efficiently you recover from difficult circumstances.

One does not only face adversity once in life. Adversity comes and goes as does the obstacles that you face. It is said that the quickest path to get somewhere is in a straight line.

This is not the case with success however. In order to be successful, there will be many instances where you take “12 steps forward, then 13 steps back”. Failures happen. The most important part is that you keep going.

Friday night at Glynn County Stadium the injury riddled Pirates missing key players on defense faced the adversity of coming off an emotional loss to their arch rival and raced away from the Effingham County Rebels 49-28.

Sean Pender doing his best imitation of MASH star Alan Alda patched together a line up and game plan to get the Pirates in position to win a share of the region crown in Richmond Hill next Friday night in the most anticipated game in years for BHS.

Pirate Report Card: Offense: A. What a difference a week makes. Jamarius Stevens pretty much played on one leg and gutted his way to outstanding night running and throwing. Alonzo Brown had another great night receiving.

Ben McCloud gave the run game a spark in his first action of the season. Pender put in the “Wild Pirate” package and Shaq Robinson had a 52 yard TD run.

Offensive line mauled the Effingham defensive front. Great job by a unit that picked up its defensive unit who was banged up and patched up.

Defense: B. Yeah, the unit gave up yards and points but with no Frazier and no Ward at LB this unit gutted it out and bent a lot and did not break too much. Jaylen Jackson played like a champion with a school record 100-yard pick six and added a second interception right before the half. A third was called back due to penalty.

This was a gutty effort by the defense last night that does not show up on the stat sheet.

Special Teams: B. Kick coverage continues to be outstanding and punt protection was cleaned up this week. Dalton Thrift did a good job punting for the first time this season.

Coaching: A. Sean Pender had this banged up, patched up, left for dead team ready to play. Pender has his 5-2 Pirates in position to claim a share of the region championship in Richmond Hill in one week. Considering where the Pirates have been for 2 years this is quite an achievement.

Overall: A-. At the end of the day your job is to beat the guy on the other sidelines. No, it wasn’t pretty, but the heart of this team showed last night when the stars seemed aligned against them. Great rebound win and now a Region Championship is attainable.

See you in Richmond Hill Pirate nation. The Pirates are back in the mix. Nobody will give them a shot, but that is just the way they like it.