Sparkman Senators Hungry For Victories In Topsy-Turvy Season
HARVEST- Just three weeks into the 2019 high school football season and it is no surprise the Sparkman Senators have won the first two games on its 10-game schedule as the Senators posted similar results each of the last three years.
What is surprising, even to many amongst the Senators’ program, is the fact the Class 7A team has opened its campaign in offensive style unlike any has seen in the Harvest community in recent memory.
“This team is hungry and wants to go out and play football for each other,” said Laron White head coach of the Senators. “We have more explosive guys in the field who can go the distance.”
Sparkman has outscored its opponents 99-41 in two games with a 48-14 victory over Hazel Green in the season opener followed by an impressive 51-point outburst in a 51-27 victory over visiting Gadsden City. Against the visiting Titans, Sparkman trailed 21-20 at halftime then went into warp speed scoring 31 consecutive points for the victory. The Senators checked in with 445 yards on offense as quarterback Nicholas Sawyer was involved with four scores and senior running back Tavion Rupert racking up 165 yards rushing.
“I was confident we had our offense together as we worked through the off-season to be better and throughout the offensive squad we feel confident,” said Jakevion Dobbs (5-9, 170), a senior wide receiver and one of only two offensive starters off last year’s squad.
The 2018 edition of the Senators won four of its first five games, but fell on hard times losing the last five contests of the regular season finishing 4-6. The team scored 168 points for the entire season while this year’s offense is already halfway pass that total through two opponents.
“Experience is the difference as we had a lot of players play last year as we tried to establish what we needed,” said White in his third season. “We were looking for more explosiveness on offense and have bigger plays. We feel we would have more dynamic receivers and running backs.”
“Our seniors got together and discussed how we finished our season after a good start last year,” said Dobbs. “We knew we had something to prove to the Sparkman community. We decided we were going to improve on the field.”
“We worked hard all summer, never let up the entire time and just pushed ourselves to be better,” said All-State senior place kicker and punter Miles Tillman.
“This is our year,” added Dobbs.
