Penthouse 2007-12 by Unknown

Penthouse 2007-12 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub


win” says Oswalt, "We always went into a game wondering howbadwewas going to win." Gant took over as head coach on orders from the principal at the time, Marion Kelly, who seems to have recognized a kindred spirit. "How many principals do you know would let me whip the players when they make bad grades?" Gant asks. He means that literally There'saflat paddiein the football office marked uoe on one side and un, on the other.On the day grades came out, the players would form aline at the office door, report cardsin hand. "You pat them on the back or you pat them onthe butt,” says Gant. "One way or the other” Not everyone was pleased with the physical discipline but David Jones, who followed Kelly as Weir principal, hadan answer for them:"I'drather see stripes on their arms and legs right now than see stripes when they're 20and in Parchman (Farm, the state prison). he says. "tall boils down to discipline.” Gant, like everyone elsein town attributes Weir's strict discipline tothelegacy of Kelly, who, two years after his death, is still known toallas Mr. Kelly. When Gant or anyoneelsein town talks about him they sound positively reverential, as if they were describing someimpossible combination of saintandmartinet. Mr Kelly set very high standards and, by sheer will madeprettymuch 'everyonein town live upto them. His shining moment came in1970, the year thestate's schools were integrated. Thirty-seven years later, Weir residents stil talk bitterly of how the Choctaw County School Board, five miles up theroad in Ackerman, redrew the county school districts and made Ackerman High 90 percent white and Weir roughly 50-50 in hopes of driving the white students away to private schools and essentially undoing integration. “They divided this county up likethey was going to hurt Weir” says Gant. fit hadn't been for ‘Mr. Kelly. this [school] would have folded. Whites would have run. He held things together. Не was the glue that made things stick." Of course, the joke was on the school board. Many of the players who propelled Weir to all those titles are black. More important. the teamwork on the field carried over to the classroom and beyond, "Football made integration work” Gant says firmly Foralihis successes, though Gant's rigid style has rubbed some people the wrong way.Ontheteam photos inthe field house, he puts tape over the images of Weir players who've been Introuble with the law. It's. tough tacticthat doesn't please everybody, as Gant discovered a few years ago when he took over as head coach of Louisville High School, a larger school inthe nest county. With Gant running things, Louisville went 5-3, but he encountered resistance when he removed photos of two former \l-Americans who had been in trouble with drugs. Thecommunityroseup and Gant toldthem, "Fm not gonna quit. You're gonna have to fire me They did, and Gant is back in Weir this year as offensive coordinator under new head coach Jim Wood. Wood is 34, witha pink face that suggests he hasn't spent as much time inthe sun as Gant.



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