On the totem pole of what’s important in life – especially after a natural disaster such as the region just experienced in the person of Hurricane Helene--- high school football falls somewhat down the totem pole of essentials such as electricity, food, air conditioning, TV, internet access, etc.

So, while it sounds somewhat cavalier it had to be asked: what about the status of Friday night’s scheduled Bryan County at Screven County football game.

“We’re still working on it,” Redskins Coach Cherard Freeman said Tuesday afternoon when asked if the game was on.  “We had only 22 players at practice on Tuesday so we’ve got a lot of stuff going on obviously.”

While last weekend’s statewide slate of games was wiped out thanks to a wise decision by the Bryan County and Claxton administrations to move up last week’s game to Wednesday the two were able to play with the Redskins posting a dominating 44-19 win in the Region 3A-DII contest.

The win kept Bryan County’s playoff hopes alive as they are battling to finish no worse than fourth in the region race. The Redskins (3-3, 2-2) currently trail Metter, McIntosh County Academy and ECI all of whom are unbeaten in region play.   

After spotting Claxton an early 7-0 lead Bryan County scored on its four first half possessions for a 30-12 lead only to give up a 72-year touchdown pass, albeit it was a tipped ball with 1:43 left in the half.

It all added up to what Freeman said was “a very ugly first half".

“We made a lot of mistakes. We’ve got to clean those things up. Compared to the game we played at ECI (26-12 loss) we were a different football team.”

With two losses in region play the Redskins –seeking to make the state playoffs a third straight year for only the second time ever—find themselves in a must win mode from here on out.

Freeman is hoping his team will show more of a sense of urgency going forward.

“We don’t have the type of football team we had last year where we can think we’re going to beat everybody,” Freeman said. “We have got to be ready to play every week. We’re so up and down.

“They’re still kids, not like a college team where you can go into a game thinking you’re going to beat somebody,” Freeman said. “We’re not that type of team. We haven’t gotten to that point.

“Our guys have got to learn how to come out and start a game. We want to see how the game flow is going to go and it’s frustrating because we talk about it all the time:  not letting the game come to us but for us to take the game to them. We’ve got to do a better job of starting the game and not see how the game is going to go.”

The only opponent the two have in common is Claxton with the Gamecocks posting a 36-12 win.