By T. Scott Boatright
His Panthers won’t get one, but Lincoln Preparatory School football coach Glen Hall considers that a positive break for his team.
That’s because despite the fact that Hall feared his Panthers would get a surprise bye heading into their ninth game of the regular season, he learned Tuesday that Friday’s game scheduled to be played at Plain Dealing looks like it will take place after all.
Plain Dealing had to back out of last week’s scheduled game at Jonesboro-Hodge because it didn’t have 11 healthy players to put out on the field.
Until Tuesday, it remained unclear if the Lions will have enough players to try and host Lincoln Prep on Friday. But Hall said Tuesday evening that it appears the game will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday as scheduled.
“I talked to their coach this afternoon and he said they intend to play the game on Friday,” Hall said. “So I feel a lot better now. Hopefully nothing will change between now and then, but he says his team has gotten some players back so that he believes they should be able to play.”
That’s good news for Hall, who was concerned that a late bye week could take away from momentum his 5-3 Panthers have built up heading into Week 9.
“I wanted to play,” Hall said. “We need to play. If we get one, I want an off week earlier in the year because you can clean stuff up after that. I hate being off Week 8 or Week 9. It hurts a team, I think. So I’m glad it looks like things have worked out and the game will take place.”
“If we wouldn’t have played I would have had to find somebody to play and hopefully get some power ranking points. But that would have been tough to do this late in the season. Next to impossible. We’ve got things rolling pretty good, so we didn’t want to get an unplanned week off and get off track. We want to keep pushing forward.”
Hall said he doubts he’ll have to play his starters very long against the Tigers, who stand at 0-8 after last week’s forfeit.
“I expect — I hope — the game will be over with pretty early,” Hall said. “But it should give us a chance to play some of our other guys and get them some reps. Hopefully that will help build our depth.
“And the thing is, I have more depth now than I’ve ever had. I’ve never had depth like this. We’ve been in (Plain Dealing’s) place before with barely having enough numbers to field a team. So we’re doing pretty good this season.”
Good but light practices after last Thursday’s win over Cedar Creek have helped build Hall’s positive attitude.
“I haven’t had one kid miss practice — they’re all out and working hard,” Hall said. “And not knowing whether we’d play and the things Plain Dealing is facing, we’ve only gone in helmets and shells so far. But I’m still getting some good work out of the team.
“By Week 9, the body starts breaking down, so they needed this kind of break without missing a game. We’re practicing hard, but we’re not hitting and doing that kind of stuff.”
Another positive for Hall is his team’s health.
“We have zero injuries,” Hall said. “We’re going into Week 9 with no injuries. That’s something new for me, too. I’m just praying they stay healthy and we’ll see where it carries us. If the playoffs started today, we would have to go to Southern Lab. But it’s going to change. If we were to win these last two (Plain Dealing and Arcadia on Nov. 8), we’ll probably get up to No. 18 because somebody ahead of us will probably lose, I think.
“Glenbrook, Arcadia and Haynesville, all district teams we’ve already played, still have to play each other. So hopefully things will work out for us that way, too. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
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