This has been a magical bounce-back season for Harrisburg and second-year coach Calvin Everett.
The Cougars, coming off a 1-9 season in 2011, earned a share of the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division title and have much bigger dreams this playoff season.
A few months ago, though, those dreams and aspirations seemed light-years away.
Harrisburg football — and all athletics — faced the harsh reality of falling victim to budget cuts under growing budget pressure for the city school district.
This is a redemption story about faith, perseverance, belief in each other, fear of the unknown, tough choices and the leadership of a second-year head coach and his athletic director.
It’s hard to imagine fall Saturday afternoons without football at Severance Field. But it was a very real possibility this summer.
And nobody, including athletic director Kirk Smallwood and Everett, knew where the train was headed.
“We sold it like we were used-car salesmen. But we were all shaking in our boots,” Smallwood said. “It was nothing but faith. I just had to believe the people who were telling me they were going to raise the money they said they were going to raise.
“What this team has been able to accomplish this season is against all odds.”
This was a scary, confusing and difficult time for the players, too.
And none of their leaders had answers to those difficult questions during those dog days of summer.
Should I stay or go? Do I start looking at other schools? What are my options? When will we have answers?
All legitimate questions, and not one of them could be answered.
“We had doubts, serious doubts, about having a season. It was real serious,” Harrisburg senior quarterback and captain Kyle Cook said. “I was thinking I might have to go to CD East, Susquehanna Twp. or Steel-High to play football. Nobody knew if we were going to have a season.
“In my heart, deep down, I really didn’t believe they were going to cut the football season. I didn’t want to believe it; let’s put it that way. We were all really worried.”
EARLY NEWS LEAKS OUT
Everett heard the rumblings and rumors in June about sports being cut at Harrisburg. But in his words, “You hear stuff at Harrisburg all the time.”
But when the news media began reporting the story, Everett suddenly had a more serious problem than trying to figure out what to do about a 1-9 season.
“It was crazy. At first I didn’t realize the severity of it. As the clock kept ticking and the days kept passing, it became more and more real,” Everett said. “Around that time when all the news outlets were reporting it, I pulled all the players in and talked to them.”
Everett didn’t have a plan or any answers when he called that first meeting. He was just trying to provide a calm and sensible voice to all the information swimming around his players’ heads.
He told the team there was nothing he or they could do about what they were hearing.
But what he did promise them was if there was a season, those who stayed were going to be prepared.
“We all got together, all the seniors, and talked about it,” said senior wide receiver and captain Marcel Brown. “There was a lot of frustration. The idea of going to other schools was going through everybody’s mind. But we decided we had to trust our coaches and athletic director that we would have a season.”
FULL SUMMER SCHEDULE
Shortly after that team meeting, Everett came up with a strategy based on what he could control.
“I just wanted to prepare these kids like we were having a season. I didn’t want to sit around and worry about what we could not control,” Everett said. “I didn’t want to not have these kids prepared, then at the last minute we have a season. I didn’t want that to happen.”
So the coach called as many “friends” in the Mid-Penn coaching ranks who would take his call and scheduled as many 7-on-7 workouts as possible. The Cougars regularly had three 7-on-7s a week. Everett was concerned about burning his players out, but he wanted them to stay busy.
He also found weekend camps within reasonable driving distance to keep the schedule filled.
“They always had something to come for. I wanted to make sure they had a reason to come,” Everett said.
And the players noticed the full schedule and latched onto what their coach was selling.
“Coach Calvin kept us busy in the summer. We figured if he was getting us ready to go, we might as well keep on fighting with him and keep doing our best to get better,” Brown said. “We just kept coming to all those workouts and doing what we could to hold this team together.”
That full summer schedule is what laid the roots for the tight bond this particular Cougars team had displayed for all to see this season.
There’s almost always pure talent at Harrisburg. But this brand of unified team football is not often seen at Severance Field on a weekly basis.
Part of that credit goes to Smallwood, Everett and his coaching staff. But the players also had to believe.
“I’m really proud of these guys. Our kids continued to walk this road of faith,” Smallwood said. “I had guys coming to my office in tears asking questions I could not answer. I just told them they had to believe good things will happen to good kids.
There was still some subtle, and not-so-subtle, recruiting of Harrisburg players taking place, though. The air of uncertainty quieted down inside the locker room, but the reality was still very much in the air.
“It was difficult. I went to some meetings with some upper people with connections and they were tough meetings, let me tell you,” Everett said. “I just had to let the kids know to keep being optimistic, keep coming to the workouts and don’t listen to anybody else. Just listen to me and trust me.
“I lost one player, a freshman. I thought it was the first of many. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I can’t let another one go.’ I can’t do it. I just did my best to keep them hungry and excited as best I could. And it paid off.”
GOOD NEWS COMES
In late July, Smallwood and Everett started to get bits and pieces of good news about the money that was being raised by the Harrisburg Public School Foundation, a private organization under the leadership of Karen Snyder that was largely responsible for keeping athletics on the field at Harrisburg.
About a week before the season, the official word came down that the 2012 Cougars would indeed play football.
But that good news was only the ending of one dramatic chapter of this journey.
The next chapter, written by the players on this team, was just getting started.
“Almost losing this season was a big motivator, especially for me being a senior,” Cook said. “I got hurt my junior year, and we all knew from all the summer workouts we had a special team. We have nothing to lose. We always remind each other we could have had none of this and we can’t afford to take anything for granted.
“If it wasn’t for all those people out there helping us, we wouldn’t have a season.”
Harrisburg has gone from a 1-9 team under a first-year coach to a contender for the District 3-AAAA title.
Nearly losing football was scary and humbling in one regard, yet has served to unify this group. There’s still a plenty of dazzling talent and speed, but the overall brand of disciplined football — minus the false starts of course — does not fit the history of this program.
Neither does winning the Mid-Penn Conference Officials Chapter Sportsmanship Award for 2012.
“They came together as a team a lot better than what I anticipated. I’ve always hoped I could get a team to the point where these guys are,” Everett said. “You can always improve, and we still have our issues. And I still drop the hammer on a few kids. But overall, they have definitely exceeded my expectations as a team.”
Even with two crushing losses — to Bishop McDevitt in Week 1 by a point, and an overtime loss to defending PIAA Class AAAA champion Central Dauphin in overtime in a game the Cougars led 21-7 deep into the fourth quarter — Harrisburg’s players never wandered off course.
In the past, even one crushing loss would do serious damage, let alone two.
The mentality and mindset of this particular group is just different.
“What has surprised me and impressed me more than anything is we didn’t have any behavior problems or issues after those two losses,” said Everett, a former Cougar player and assistant coach. “In the past, you lose a big game you have guys pointing fingers, fighting and you weren’t sure who was going to show up at the next practice.
“How we carried ourselves after those losses is something they should be proud of. Those losses hurt, but they didn’t kill the spirit of this team. And that comes from what we went through over the summer.
“People have heard bits and pieces about it. But most people really don’t know what happened.”
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