Marty Kirkland: NMHS begins its climb

Josh Lowe is a couple years removed from the last-minute preparations and stress high school football coaches face in their final days of preseason practice, but the North Murray High athletic director probably had a lot on his mind this past week just the same.

To my knowledge — I checked the Georgia High School Football Historians’ website just to be sure — Maria Bradley has never coached high school football, but North Murray’s principal had reason to keep checking a list over the last few days as well.

But by golly, North Murray had itself a varsity football game on Friday night, and the Mountaineers had it at their stadium.

That was no doubt a load off the minds of Lowe and Bradley, as well as Mountaineers coach Larry Cornelius and others who made it a priority to kick off at the new campus on Mt. Carmel Church Rd., where classes won’t begin until Sept. 7, but varsity football has been played. And with all due respect to cracking the books before you lay crackback blocks, in this state that legitimizes the status of a high school as much as anything.

For what was obviously a historic occasion, North Murray made sure to do it up right, with just enough ceremony to acknowledge the weight of the moment, but not so much the main event was overshadowed.

Bradley gave a speech. Dignitaries including school board personnel and the mayors of both Eton and Chatsworth were introduced before kickoff. Other athletic teams helped release hundreds of black and gold balloons, only a few of which escaped early. The national anthem was performed as Boy Scouts presented the colors at midfield.

North Murray sent out four captains for its first pregame coin toss, and Austin Carter, Jackie Abernathy, Dallas Bowers and Jonathan Smith will forever be the four young men who represented their teammates at the 50-yard line before anyone else. The Mountaineers ran through a sign that proclaimed “We are #1 North Murray,” which no one could really argue with at that point, considering the team was still undefeated.

It was real. Varsity football was happening at Mountaineer Stadium, where the field is carved bowl-style into the ground, a great big patch of grass just made for being churned up by fullbacks and linebackers still doing what they do for nothing more than school pride.

But the final week of preparation was a busy one.

“I feel like I have been here every second that I could,” Bradley said on Friday evening while nervously checking to make sure she didn’t miss the introduction of the Mountaineers. “I have been here daylight until dark, and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and we’ve just been really anxious and really busy.”

I caught up with Lowe — who coached Murray County’s football team for two years before becoming North Murray’s first AD — a half hour before kickoff as he made his way from one side of the stadium to the other.

“I know you’re about to be busy,” I said to Lowe, apologizing for keeping him from whatever task beckoned.

“About to be?” he joked.

Lots of work has gone into making Mountaineers athletics a reality, and the stadium is one of the most tangible pieces of that project. There were doubts as recently as two weeks ago as to whether or not the field would be ready, but those doing the construction put in extra effort to alleviate those concerns, Lowe said. As he watched fans file into the bleachers on Friday, he was conscious of how many people double-timed it so there were seats there at all.

“It’s very exciting for our community and for all the people who worked so hard to bring this together,” Lowe said. “This has been a team effort, and so many people, from the administration down to our custodial staff and our teachers have helped get the field set up for tonight.”

Bradley’s responsibilities mean she has an even bigger scope of concern as work continues to prepare the school for classes. And, she pointed out, there are other athletic fields to complete. There’s still a lot of brown on campus where there will one day be green, but you have to get dirty when you’re building something.

“I can’t explain to you how special it feels to have your own home, to not have to ask ‘Can I borrow ...’” said Bradley, whose first year as principal was spent with classes held in the building that once housed Murray County’s Ninth Grade Academy.

As for Friday’s game, which went the way of the other guys to the tune of a 27-7 victory for Catoosa County’s Heritage High, it made it clear the Mountaineers as a football team aren’t unlike the North Murray campus right now — a work in progress.

They have no seniors and only a year of junior varsity competition to count on as experience.

A 20-point loss to a school that’s itself not far removed from the ground floor of varsity football is a sign, not surprisingly, that the Mountaineers have work to do. The frustration Cornelius expressed following the game — after relentlessly drilling his team through an intense preseason — is a sign that he cares about getting the job done.

Championships probably aren’t something Mountaineers fans should be worrying about just yet. But they have themselves a varsity football team now, and that’s the first step.

Marty Kirkland is Sports Editor of The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com.

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