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| Belhaven athletics photo by Chris Todd |
By Joe Sager
D3sports.com
Things are building at Belhaven.
Coming off a program-best 7-3 campaign, the Blazers (7-1) have continued their momentum while overcoming some obstacles — a conference change, a flood and a hurricane — along the way.
First, Belhaven completed its move from the American Southwest Conference to the USA South Conference prior to the academic year. That change brought with it an entire set of unknown opponents.
“It’s been fun. It’s exciting for our players because they get a chance to go see new players and new teams,” Belhaven coach Blaine McCorkle said. “For us, as coaches, it really allowed us to stay sharp and stay focused and reevaluate some of the things we’re doing because we didn’t know what these teams are doing – we don’t have any history with these schools. It forced us to dig a little deeper.”
For the players, though, they’ve embraced the challenge.
“We may not know tendencies or what coaches like to do and we don’t know who the main guys are on every team, but we just have to learn about things as we go,” Belhaven senior linebacker Connor Fordham said. “What I have come to learn during my time at Belhaven is that a lot of offenses are the same; they just have some little different looks. Really, it’s about us and how do we prepare and are we doing what we need to do to get ready for these sorts of teams? That’s been an enjoyable process for us.”
For Belhaven, which is located in Jackson, Mississippi, leaving the Texas-based ASC for the USA South, which has football-playing members in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, has been interesting from the travel aspect, too.
“We get to see a different side of I-20, which is enjoyable,” Fordham said. “You get to see different tendencies of football. We were in a really good conference and we’re in a good conference now. We’ve been able to carry over the success.”
The Blazers finished third in the ASC last year behind powers Hardin-Simmons and Mary Hardin-Baylor, which went on to win the Stagg Bowl.
“We lost Mary Hardin-Baylor and Hardin-Simmons, but, after that, everyone in the ASC is just like the teams in the USA South. Pick your school, it’s a pretty even swap,” McCorkle said. “Maybe, sometimes, the USA South doesn’t get the credit it deserves because we don’t have two juggernauts at the top like the ASC, but there are some good football programs here.
“It’s so important for our program to continue to win. We competed pretty well last year and finished third. Leaving the conference after doing so well was really important to us. Now, we’re just continuing it.”
Belhaven had to contend with one natural disaster just before preseason camp began and another afterward. The Pearl River flooded due to severe storms. The flooding affected the city’s largest water treatment plant, which stopped the treatment of drinking water for a while.
“There was a water boil alert, so you could wash your clothes and shower, but you couldn’t drink the water. All of our water was bottled. We had some alums and people in town that took care of us. They went to Sam’s Club and Costco and bought as much bottled water as possible,” McCorkle said. “We’re still drinking it now and the water has been good for three months. There are still pallets of bottled water around here. Pretty much all preseason we couldn’t drink the tap water, but we’ve been in good shape for the last five or six weeks. We came out pretty good in our part of Jackson, but some people have really struggled with that issue. Sometimes, getting ice was tough. We bought hundreds of big coolers.”
Hurricane Ian affected the team’s second USA South game at Methodist in Fayetteville, N.C., on Oct. 1.
“That was a tougher challenge for us,” McCorkle said. “The game was going to be moved up to Friday and we moved all our travel up. But, we ended up playing Saturday and weren’t able to adjust our travel back, so that ended up being a five-day trip.”
The team overcame that, too. The squad’s only loss came at Huntingdon, 34-21, in the conference opener. Belhaven still has a shot at a conference title — it needs to win its last two games and have Huntingdon lose its final two. Regardless, the Blazers hope to continue playing balanced football. Their offense averages 42.63 points per game and put up 171 points over the last three games.
“We’ve been taking it day by day as an offense and making sure we’re paying attention to all the small details and trying to execute the best way we can,” Belhaven junior quarterback Tim Johnson said. “The season started a little slow for us. Once we got going, we were the same teams we’ve always been. It’s just a matter of finding a way to translate that into all four quarters.”
Johnson has passed for 1,303 yards and 19 touchdowns. He has run for 366 yards and two scores as well. Running backs Kolbe Blunt (966 yards, 14 TDs), Devin Daniels (491, 7) and D’Ante Gallashaw (426, 2) are main offensive options as well.
“It’s a really comforting feeling that our offense is not a one-trick pony,” Johnson said. “We run the ball really well with those three backs. At the same, we could flip the script and throw it around. It’s really nice to lean on the running game and take shots downfield when we need them.”
“Being balanced is not being 50/50; it’s having the ability to do both. Maybe one week, we have to rely on our running game and, the next week, we have to be pass heavy,” McCorkle said. “We scored a lot of points last week and it just so happened we threw for five touchdowns and ran for five touchdowns.”
Belhaven, which allows 15.75 points per game, has found its stride, defensively. The Blazers have given up 19 points over the last four games.
“We take practice really seriously. In the last couple of games, we’ve taken our preparation in film and our focus on practice and execution as an entire unit and as individuals to a new level,” Fordham said. “If you prepare and focus well, when it gets to a game, it’s easy. You can just go play and have fun. It’s cool to see our defense grow and develop.
“We’ve played some really good teams recently and have had a chance to do some really awesome things, defensively,” he continued. “The goal for us is constant and continual improvement every single day. That’s what we’re focused on. Our coaches always say we should be the best player possible at the end of the season, way better than at the beginning. The only way to do that is to stay locked in and focused.”
The Blazers hope that approach gives the program a new identity as a perennial contender.
“I did the math and, before COVID, Belhaven was the 12th-most losing program over the previous five-year period. Now, we’ve won 17 of our last 24. It’s been a pretty drastic turn,” McCorkle said. “Prior to COVID, the program only had four winning years. Now, we’re guaranteed three in a row. Yeah, we’re having great success. But, we still have a lot to do to right a lot of years of wrong. We feel like we still have a lot to prove.
“Our kids don’t care what conference they are in or what nonconference games we have. Just spot the ball and we’re coming to play. We’d like to line up with anybody at any time.”
