By Micah Cho, WKTV Sports Intern
Difficult weather conditions couldn’t slow down the Godwin Heights Wolverines as they jumped out a big first half lead Friday at home against the Lee Rebels and then made their way to a fourth straight playoff appearance.
A season that started out rough for the Wolverines, at 1-3, ended with a 6-3 record, and excited seniors and an even more excited coach.
“We’re just excited that we could close out the game, close out our season and get us into the playoffs,” said head coach Brandan Kimble, who will be entering his first post season as a head coach against the South Christian Sailors on Friday. “We started a tough season with our transition. It took a little fortitude for our kids to stick to it. We started 1-3 and we told the kids that if we just finally believe and trust in the system it’ll start to work.”
Defeating Wyoming Lee, 33-6, Kimble used the situation to teach his players a valuable lesson that goes beyond football.
“In the first half we were executing on all cylinders, we were really good,” Kimble said after his team jumped to a big first half lead. “But we really respect the Lee staff … (and) in high school football you can be in the same situation. We didn’t want to win (big) just to say that we did. We brought some freshmen up and some JV players up, so … (decided) to use the second half to get those kids some experience.”
In a game that was dominated by the Wolverines offense, defense was also a key factor in the playoff clinching game. Terrence Moore had the first interception of the first half returning it for a touchdown, while Deamontae Clark had another interception during the next Wyoming Lee possession.
“Hearing the kids scream right now is just a good feeling, especially in my first season as head coach,” Kimble said on the field after the game.
Also at the game was HQ, an organization dedicated to helping at-risk youths. Attendees who donated items to the organization were admitted into the game for free. For more information on HQ, please visit www.hqgr.org.
Godwin Heights is set to play their first playoff game against South Christian at East Kentwood High School at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 26, which will be the WKTV featured game of the week.
This week’s WKTV Featured Game (which on Oct. 19 was East Kentwood’s home win against Rockford) and other sports events are cable broadcast either live, immediately after the event and/or in rebroadcast, on Comcast WKTV Channel 25 and on AT&T U-Verse Community 99.
WKTV’s featured football games are rebroadcast on the night of the game (Thursday or Friday) at 11 p.m. and Saturday starting at 11 a.m. See WKTVjournal.org/sports for complete schedules.
