Rose leads Bob Jones ninth grade team to undefeated season
Caden Rose with Freshman Football Coach Steve Bourque (Record Photo/ Lindsay Vaught)
MADISON- Winning has become habit at Bob Jones for the football program. But it doesn’t happen by accident.
Success starts in middle school and builds in high school at the ninth and tenth grade levels.
“It’s important to keep players involved at that level so they will be ready at the varsity level,” Head Coach Kevin Rose said.
Under the leadership of coach Steve Bourque the freshmen team completed an undefeated 8-0 season on Oct. 17 with a 63-21 win over Grissom.
The offense scored a touchdown on each possession they had against Grissom. It has been that way most of the season Bourque said.
The prolific offense has been led by quarterback Caden Rose, son of Bob Jones Head Football Coach Kevin Rose and his wife Heather Rose.
“He’s as good as I’ve seen in a while,” Bourque said of his quarterback. “He can read the defense, he knows right away which side he needs to throw the ball too and which receiver to throw to. He only made one or two wrong reads all year long. It’s been great experience for him. His accuracy is really good. I think he will top out about 6-foot tall and he is faster than he looks. When he takes off he can go. He’s a good leader and he leads by positive influence on his teammates.”
Rose also is the team’s punter.
Bourque is quick to point out Rose’s teammates have played a big part in the success.
Kahlil Griffin was almost unstoppable at running back and was moved up to varsity midway through the season. He scored 12 touchdowns from scrimmage and three kickoff returns for touchdowns. Zack Zackary took over at running back and the team kept winning. Aremon Garth and Dylan Ray also had big games on offense.
The offensive line was led by center Malachi Knowles. Alex Kirby, Mike Lucente, Richard Walter, and Baylor Pascal rounded out the offensive line.
“We have ran the same offense he will run next year on the varsity,” Bourque said. “We didn’t scale it back for the freshman because he can make all the throws and all the reads. So all the repetitions he is getting while not at the same speed as varsity this experience will speed up his development at the next level.”
Bob Jones posted wins over some of the top programs in North Alabama.
“Muscle Shoals was a big win, we beat them 21-14,” Bourque said. “Florence has a good team we beat them 21-6. Against James Clemens I couldn’t get anyone on defense to stop them so we relied on our offense to outscore them and we won 49-41.”
Bourque was assisted by Walter Lockhart and Austin Marsh.
