MT. AIRY — Jake Jones says he felt it before the season ever kicked off; Michael Babers believed it just as intensely:
Things were finally on the upswing for Habersham Central football -- finally. After four seasons that saw the Raiders win three games combined, there were times when it seemed as though a once-proud program had lost its way.
After a 2-0 start to 2016, however, it is clear that Habersham is back on the right path -- and now everyone in northeast Georgia is seeing why Raiders players like Jones and Babers were so adamant.
"It's very exciting. Everything's changing. Like they say, it's a new era, and it really has become a new era," said Jones, a senior receiver/linebacker. "Everybody loves it, and there ain't nothing else you could ask for. It's just like football has been gone around here for so long, and now it's come back. Things have changed and you can definitely feel it."
"We take pride because we knew our group -- our senior group -- we knew it was going to be special, how hard we worked and going through a lot up until now, and seeing it pay off is wonderful," added Babers, a senior running back.
Indeed, Habersham Central coach Benji Harrison says the excitement -- throughout the community -- is palpable.
"It's unbelievable. You see it in our stands; you see it when you're out around -- people are really interested in what we're doing," said Harrison, who in his second year in charge has already accomplished something unseen in Mt. Airy in 26 years. This season's 2-0 start is the first such opening to a campagn siince the 1990 team won 12 straight and reached the state quarterfinals. And while no one in the Raiders program is crowing about the possibilities of a deep playoff run yet, they are certain that they want to maintain their winning form.
"They're really excited to be 2-0. You see it in our school. You see the whole demeanor of our kids, our student body is a little bit different. There's a buzz in the air, and it's been pretty cool, and our kids are really enjoying being a part of it because it's been a while. It's been a while since that vibe's been here, and we just want to keep that vibe going," Harrison added.
To do that the Raiders must find a way past an athletic Franklin County team, led by quarterback Tyrique David that will demand much of the Habersham defense's attention.
"What they do is they run the triple option so you've got to be very disciplined. That's our word this week -- be disciplined in how we play," Harrison said. "They're a football team that's very capable of beating us if we don't play well."
The Raiders learned that both factors will be key to the remainder of their campaign in last week's 29-23 defeat of White County -- in which Habersham overcame a slow start and a slew of what Harrison refers to as "self-inflicted wounds" -- penalties. In fact those "SIWs" are one of the few lowlights for a program that is showing balance in attack and tenacity on defense. Between Babers (340 yards rushing, 5 TDs) and quarterback Wilbanks (348 yards passing, 4 TDs), the Raiders spread attack has weapons to spare, while a brand new starting five on the offensive line is holding its own. Meanwhile, the defense is allowing 18 points per game while flying to the football. Yet Habersham knows it still has plenty of room for improvement -- as last week's win attested.
"Maybe that opened our eyes to what we need to focus on really and broadened our spectrum of what we can be this season and hopefully become a better team than we were last year," Jones said.
Perhaps most telling, however, was that the Raiders found their way back from their shortcomings -- scoring twice inside the final five minutes to clinch a momentum-building victory.
"Our kids just kept fighting. I talk about our defense, when we came back out with a little over four-and-a-half minutes to go and getting a stop. We could have very easily said, 'We're down nine. Does this stop really matter?' and pack it in for next week. But they were able to get a stop and give our offense an opportunity," Harrison said. "It's huge to build on. Because there's no doubt, you can talk about things like that too, but that's something we'll look back on somewhere else in the season, where maybe we're playing really well, but we still find ourselves behind late in the ballgame, and its something that should be a little bit calming for our kids to understand that we've been there; we've done that, and it's not over till the end, and Friday night showed that."
The Raiders start is remarkable in itself for a program that had not experienced much scoreboard success for any of the current players careers. But it is a start that Harrison and his staff believed was attainable months before kickoff.
"You can talk about things as much as you want to. You can talk about keep doing the little things right, working hard and good things will happen -- but until it happens, they're kids. And they've got to see the proof of how they play on Friday nights and so far we've done that," Harrison said. "I think we are where we thought we could be if we played well. These kids had a great summer and a lot of determination. We had great numbers all summer long.
"We expected to be 2-0 to start out if we did what we needed to to get there, so I think we're on schedule. I told them the other night we're not -- if we want to accomplish the things we want to accomplish this year -- we're not as good as we have to be. But that's part of it. Every coach is going to say that too. We've just got to keep improving and keep getting better each week, taking it one game at a time, not looking ahead and not looking behind and just have our full focus on this week's game."
Maintain that focus and just maybe the Raiders historic start will continue into something even bigger.
FRANKLIN COUNTY at HABERSHAM CENTRAL
- WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday
- WHERE: Raider Stadium, Mt. Airy
- FRANKLIN (1-1, 0-0 Region 8-AAA): Bye last week after 61-20 loss to Stephens County on Aug. 26
- HABERSHAM (2-0, 0-0 Region 8-AAAAAA): Defeated White County 29-23 last week.
- NOTABLE: Habersham Central leads series 15-3. The two teams have not met since 2001, a 56-8 Raiders win. The two teams met every year from 1972 to 1987 but have played just twice since then.
