The Reeds Spring football team is going places no Reeds Spring boys team before them ever has.
“I don’t know how to feel, it’s just unreal,” said junior quarterback Blandy Burrall. “[We are the} first one in history to go in our school, so it’s crazy.”
This pack of Wolves is the first boys team in school history to reach a state championship game.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my coaches, I couldn’t be more proud of my players. It was an amazing day,” said Head Coach Andy McFarland.
They’re in the state final thanks to a big win over Sullivan in the semifinals – where one particular player exploded for the game of his life.
“I don’t know how many touchdowns he scored,” McFarland said shortly after the win. “But James Dowdy had an amazing day on both sides of the ball.”
Wolves junior receiver, James Dowdy, scored his first touchdown in the second quarter from 52 yards out, tying the game at 14.
“You know, all day every day [James and I are] best friends. So we’re always around each other and we just know what we’re thinking so it works out perfectly,” Blandy said.
It works so perfectly that Blandy and James connected again.
This time from 80 yards away with time expiring in the second quarter.
“I mean, I knew Blandy was gonna throw it to me,” James said. “He usually does do something like that. But once I turned, I seen [sic] the safety hit the corner and I knew I was going all the way.”
That gave the Wolves the halftime lead and flipped the momentum completely in their favor.
“Whenever you know you’re getting the ball after halftime if you can maybe trust your guys to take a chance and see if something crazy can happen like it did today you know, and double up on the points. That like you said, it changes the game,” McFarland said.
But Dowdy’s massive day wasn’t done.
After each team scored in the third quarter, James ran back a kickoff for an 80-yard score, his third and final touchdown of the day.
He’d also add an interception on defense where he plays every snap at safety.
Plus, he covers punts and he’s the team’s holder on kicks.
“Whenever you can impact the game in more than one way, you’re an extremely invaluable part of your team,” McFarland said. “And James is definitely one of those guys. And I would argue we’ve got a bunch more of those guys as well.”
It’s with those types of guys, that McFarland’s team will head to Columbia with one goal in mind.
“I told them don’t be satisfied with just getting there and let’s go win the whole thing,” he said.
“We gotta stay in that mindset, you know, it’s a business trip, not a field trip, it’s a business trip,” Blandy added.
The Wolves play Cardinal Ritter in the Class 3 state championship on Saturday at 11 a.m.
