-Rays' Football Season Overview

by Shyheim Etienne

The IEKHS football team said that they felt well prepared this season. The captains, Andrew Penn Jr., Peron Trottman, and Shunnel Greenaway, all agreed, “We practiced hard all summer so we should be ready for CAHS this season.”

But even with the upbeat spirit, The Devil Rays ended the regular season 2-4.

IEKHS game schedule was pushed back to Oct 15th because the Private School team didn’t have any uniforms or pads as yet, but that was a good call by the athletic directors because IEKHS didn’t have their uniforms, either.

Kean High’s Head Coach Elroy Donovan originally ordered new uniforms--black jerseys with black pants -- but the principal, Dr. Sharon McCollum, said, “We are not paying for our own uniforms, an EDC company is, so that choice of color cannot be used. ” The new uniforms were similar to last season’s uniforms, just with a different outline around the numbers and a more comfortable fabric.

Kean’s first game against the Arawaks ended with the score 46-0 in favor of Arawaks. The second game was against the Chicken Hawks in which the score turned out to be 14-0 in the Hawks’ favor.

The losing streak ended during Kean’s third game played against Central with a win of 36-6 which started to show that the Rays were improving from experience in the last few games.

Friday November 2, 2012 was the fourth game of six of Kean High School’s season. IEKHS Devil Rays played CAHS again, competing to see who the better team was. It was Kean’s homecoming game at Lionel Roberts stadium at 7 p.m.

The first kickoff of the game to the IEKHS player Tu’shuney Philips was fumbled to one of the CAHS player, which caused #7 to score six points without the extra point. Coach Donovan was very mad, “I practiced the receiving squad all week before the game,’’ he said.

On the second kickoff to an IEKHS player, Evans Wallace ran the ball for 20 yards which started the offence on the 42 yard line. The quarterback Shunnel Greenaway called an immediate huddle to set off the offense with a 7-yard pass to the tight end Andrew Penn Jr. But the play was called back by the referee because one of the linemen was offside.

The offensive coordinator, Jason Nelson, said, “The team wasn’t prepared mentally’’ because they did all the same simple mistakes over and over, which they had been doing for the last couple games.

After half time it was a fight between the Rays and the Hawks; the score was 24-10, the Hawks in the lead. CAHS received the ball and carried it 16 yards up field which started their offense on the 44-yard line with the first down.

From the first play which was an outside handoff to Hawks running back Kyle Edwards, the fans could see that the IEKHS players weren’t as physically fit because they struggled to catch him. The game ended with a score of 36-10 the in CAHS’s favor.

On November 30th the IEKHS football team played their last game against the Central High School Caribs on Complex’s field on St.Croix. At 7 p.m. the ball was kicked off to the Caribs who carried the ball upfield for a first down.

The Caribs’ quarterback called a huddle and set a running play that allowed them to score. They missed the extra point, so the score was 6-0 with the Caribs in the lead . “I yelled it was a run, and no one attacked it ; it is the lack of being mentally focussed that caused them to score so easy,” Jason Nelson said.

The ball was then kicked off to IEKHS, and Evans Wallace ran the ball 53 yards up ield for the first down. Rays quarterback Me’Shaun Wilkinson #18 called his huddle and sent his receivers in motion for a passing play. The ball was thrown to Dequan Cline #16 for the first down.

After the play the refs said the Rays had two minutes in the quarter before half time, so the Rays chose to call a no-huddle with the same play from before. The ball was thrown to #16 again for the touchdown, seven seconds before the whistle was blown. The score was 21-6 at halftime with the Rays in the lead.

The third quarter began with the Rays getting the ball first. The quarterback decided to call running plays alone until the game ended. That strategy worked: the Rays beat the Caribs 34-6.

In spite of the win, the coach said, “My team’s performance tonight was subpar. Even though we won the game, we haven’t practiced in three weeks. Tonight was tougher than it was suppose to be. I keep telling them do not underestimate any team, because they get better week by week,” said Coach Donovan.

But things could have been worse: The Devil Rays ended the regular season 2-4, while the Caribs ended 0-5.

Editor’s note: Please see the related story “Mr. Seipel Defends Tackle Football Team” by Evans Wallace.

Also look for an updated story about our track.