Wild, crazy ride

Hornets have been through a lot in ’09 to make second straight playoff appearance

By Tom Waddill

Adapt, adjust and overcome. For the 2009 Hornets, that simple saying has become a way of life.

The Hornets have dealt with a ton of adversity this season, and they have found, or fought, their way over every obstacle thrown in their path.

They’ve adapted to a brand-new offense, they worked a few weeks without their head coach, they searched high and low for places to practice and they even fought off the swine flu.

You name it, these Hornets have done it. And they’ve come out better on the other side of every issue.

“It’s not just the kids, it’s the coaching staff, our whole program,” Hornets head coach Mitchell Coey said after practice Thursday. “Slowly, we built a foundation and we’ve turned the corner.

“The kids believe in what we’re doing and they want to be a part of it. They’ve gotten a taste of winning and they like it. That’s one of the big reasons they keep showing up ready to work, no matter what’s going on.”

Adapting to the spread

Coey hired a new offensive coordinator in the spring. When Kane Harris arrived in Huntsville, he told the players he wanted to run an up-tempo spread offense. That fired everybody up for a while, but with the change came a great deal of work and a need for commitment.

Huntsville’s offense sputtered early in the season. The Hornets lost two of their three nondistrict games, and they didn’t do much offensively in their lone win against Houston Waltrip.

“Basically, we had to step up,” senior center Jimmy Spivey said. “Offensively, our practices early in the season were bad, then we played bad in the games. We just kept working hard, though, and finally everything started clicking.”

After splitting their first two district games, the Hornets made some personnel changes. Senior Shaquille Ross became Huntsville’s No. 1 running back and Justin Gilbert stepped up as the team’s starting quarterback. Spivey and his colleagues on the offensive line began to work together and everything fell into place.

The Hornets have not lost since.

“As a group, we decided we had to have patience,” Coey said. “Me, I was asking why ain’t we scoring more points. We had to work through those problems and make some adjustments.”

The Hornets feel much better about their offense now.

They’re comfortable with the protection they’re getting from linemen Forbes Baggett, James Venette, Xavier Briggs, Jamaal Lenoir, Spivey and others, and they know they have some explosive weapons in Gilbert, Ross, Mark Wheeler, Trevion Byrd and Joe Maxey.

“We are better prepared now,” senior receiver Ross Nesselrode said.

“We’ve got more endurance,” receiver Gabe Franklin added.

“Mentally, we’re better also,” concluded Ross.

Harris said he’s not satisfied with where the Hornets are today. They’re much improved, as evidenced by their total-offense average of 361 yards over the past five games. But Harris wants the Hornets to strive for more.

“We’re still a work in progress,” the coach said. “We’re still working to get better. We’ve got six ballgames left and we’ve got lots of room for improvement.”

Serious neck surgery

Before the Hornets played a single game this fall, Coey checked into a Houston hospital and had surgery on his neck. Doctors relieved the constant pressure caused by four bulging discs and bone spurs that were pinching the coach’s neck.

Coey returned the sidelines for the season opener against College Park, but he missed a number of practices and he watched a game or two from the press box while he was on the mend.

“That motivated us a whole lot,” Spivey said. “Coach Coey was having neck surgery and he was in pain. He would have died to be here with us.”

“That made us realize we shouldn’t take football or our athletic ability for granted,” Ross added. “Coach Coey couldn’t be here, but we knew he would love to be with us.”

Coey said he probably rushed back to work too quickly, but he’s feeling fine now. He didn’t want to have surgery, especially at the start of the season, but he had no alternative.

“I didn’t want to be away from practice, I didn’t want to be away from the kids and I didn’t want to be away from my coaching staff,” Coey said.

The Hornets adapted to the situation and adjusted to the fact that Coey was going to be away for a while.

“We came to work every day and knew what coach Coey wanted,” defensive coordinator Shane Martin said. “Our biggest deal was with those kids in that locker room. ... Most of these kids grew up with Coach Coey and they knew he’d be here if he could.”

Harris added, “We’ve got an awesome coaching staff here and our kids never blinked an eye. They just went on with their business. I know they were thinking about coach Coey. Ultimately, that brought all of us coaches together more. We have another saying, ‘Tighten up,’ and we tightened up as a coaching staff during Coey’s absence.”

No place to call home

For weeks, the Hornets roamed from place to place looking for a spot to work out. Huntsville was a vagabond team looking for a place to practice.

Because their main practice field was under water, they practiced once or twice in the parking lot where the Hornet Band works on its halftime show. They spent rainy days in the old Hornet Gym, making the best of the cramped corners and no room to run. The team loaded up on buses and went to Bowers Stadium several times. They even worked out in the Commons Area of Huntsville High School.

“We practiced on grass, asphalt, a hardwood floor, turf and tile in the cafeteria,” Martin laughed. “Our kids didn’t have a problem with any of that. They were ready to go. ... We made a joke about keeping a bunch of different shoes in your lockers — cleats, flats, boots, rubber boots. They wore everything.”

Like the offense and Coey’s neck, that problem is solved now, too. The Hornets returned to their main practice field a few weeks ago. It’s bone dry compared to the quagmire of the early season, and there is plenty of grass on the surface.

Shhhhh, the Hornets even had to deal with the swine flu

Nobody liked to talk about it at the time, but two or three of the Hornets contracted the H1N1 virus, or the swine flu. Harris doesn’t like to think about it because he was down to three offensive linemen — total — two days before the Brenham game.

“That was awful,” the coach says.

School was out for a week districtwide in Huntsville. The able-bodied Hornets, and several who were not so able-bodied, showed up for work anyway, practicing on the soccer field above the Joe Clements Field House.

“Even the guys who didn’t have swine flu, everybody was affected,” Nesselrode said. “Everybody had a runny nose, or they were hacking something awful. That was a bad week.”

Martin adds, “We’re fixing to play one of the best programs in the state of Texas and we had a lot of guys throwing up, a lot of sinus and drainage stuff. We had to fight through everything.”

Spivey was the team’s only confirmed case of the swine flu. He missed several days of school and watched the Brenham game from the sideline in street clothes.

“Not playing one of our biggest games of the season, against Brenham, that was tough,” said Spivey. “The swine flu, that was a big setback for everybody.”

Hornets better off because of adversity

The Hornets say they have learned a lot this season, lessons that will last past high school.

“Five years from now, people are going to wonder what is Shaq doing,” Ross said. “I’ll be 21 then and I’ll be all right. The key to success in life is not to blow up every time you don’t get your way, or when something bad happens. I’m learning how to handle stuff.”

Nesselrode says he has learned to juggle a busy schedule and work through whatever comes his way.

“I’ve had to get through a lot of adversity this year. I’m taking the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, and I’ve had to balance that with being a leader on the football field,” Nesselrode said. “When this season comes to an end — sometime in December, hopefully — this is not the end for us.

“We’re going to face adversity in life, and we are all better equipped to handle it now.”