Coaches talk about playing sound and with effort to their teams on a daily basis.
Kirk Academy first-year head football coach Justin Purvis had no problem with his team’s effort during the Raiders disappointing 33-32 loss to Rossville, Tenn., last Friday night.
“The biggest thing I told our guys was that we are a better team than we showed in the loss last week to Rossville,” Purvis said. “We went to work this week cleaning up the fundamentals. When you watch the film, there is no lack of effort. The guys are playing hard and are all over the place. We have to be able to take what is being coached and carry it over to Friday night. At practice, we are doing what we are supposed to do, but on Friday, we aren’t doing what we are coached to do. It’s something to have to continue to chip away at.”
A lack of situational awareness was also a problem for the Raiders in the loss to the Wolves, according to Purvis.
“We had five or six times in the game last week that we could have made a game-changing play and didn’t because of a lack of situational awareness, and I will take the blame for that,” he said. “It’s the growing pains you go through with an inexperienced team.”
The Raiders head to Flora this Friday night to face the defending Class AAAA State Champion Tri-County Academy Rebels. Phillip Wasson’s team entered last week with a 21-game winning streak, which was snapped following last week’s 46-7 loss to Jackson Prep. Not many people give the Raiders a chance in the contest.
“Not many people give us a chance and I enjoy that,” Purvis said. “We aren’t good enough to just play hard and win games. This team must play hard and sound to win games. If we do that, we have a chance to be a good football team. It’s another week to go out there and hopefully put it all together. We need to worry about doing our job every day the best you can – not worrying about who we are playing.”
Purvis sees an outstanding team when watching Tri-County, a program that is 52-5 over the last four seasons.
“Tri-County has an outstanding football team that is sound in what they do and are well-coached,” Purvis concluded. “They are not going to make any mistakes. Offensively, they are going to run the football and will be very physical. We are going to have to match their physicality.”
Friday’s game will be a homecoming of sorts for Purvis, who has several members of his family with ties to Tri-County Academy. His grandfather, Duaine Purvis, and grandmother, Dorthy Purvis, were instrumental in helping with the foundation of the school with his grandfather helping to building some of the current structures on the campus. His father, Pat, graduated from Tri-County Academy in 1976, while his uncle, Cecil, was part of the first graduating class of TCA. His aunt, Tina Purvis, was in the first class to attend the school for their entire 12 years.
Many of those family members are expected to be in attendance for the game.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
