Wildcats headed in the right direction

RINGGOLD — Dan River coach Ferrell Edmunds watched his players go through warm-ups and something immediately caught his eye.

The first-year coach walked up to where his players were standing and instructed a player to repeat his routine, saying that something should never be done haphazardly.

That change in attitude has been a major reason for the quick rebuilding project the Wildcats (4-5, 2-3 Dogwood) have undergone this season — from being a Dogwood District doormat to a regularly competitive team challenging for a playoff spot.

“The spirit about this team — from Day One — I felt the spirit of this team that they wanted a change. They wanted to have a successful season coming in,” Edmunds said at Thursday’s walkthrough for tonight’s game at Nelson County. “It feels good having the opportunity to finish the season 5-5 and the opportunity to go to the playoffs, it’s a great situation.”

Even the players had doubts about how this season would go. Many still expected the same tradition of losing and poor attitudes that have haunted the Dan River football team for four of the past five years.

Not with Edmunds at the helm. The former NFL player and GW tight end brought four former GW alums to his staff and the coaches’ winning attitude has been contagious among the players.

“It feels great to see where we came from last year — giving up a lot of points — to playing with heart this year and never really being out of a game and always playing hard from start to finish,” senior defensive tackle Jeff Williams said.

Has coaching really made that much of a difference? To the players, yes it has. In past years, players would stagger in late to practice, key players would cramp up during games because running was not stressed during preparation for games and, as Edmunds demonstrated with a small space between his two index fingers, the Wildcats came close to winning but never learned how to win.

“I’ll give (former Dan River coach Ryan) Scolpini his props — he gave us what we needed to get right. But Coach Ferrell took it to another step and helped us to evolve into a way better team this year,” senior lineman Donovan Glenn said.

Even Scolpini believed the program was headed in the right direction when he stepped down earlier in February. It just came down to getting the kids in the program on the right track.

“My whole thing all year — paying attention to details — you get the details down, you get the fundamentals down, you put yourself in a good situation,” Edmunds said. “You can not replace anything with hard work. The kids have to be willing to sacrifice something for the greatness of their careers.”

That sermon of sacrifice has been received with open arms by the Wildcats, who are looking to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Edmunds admits that the players have achieved much more than he and his staff expected heading into this season, when the team has won more games since 2002.

“It’s interesting because we’ve been so focused this year on trying to go to the playoffs and try to put Dan River back on the map of where we used to be,” senior cornerback and wide receiver Brian Murphy said, “and we knew coming into this season that we had to be determined and we had to be focused on what we needed to do and that’s where the dedication factor came in. The new coaches established discipline and they just carried us along during the whole season.”