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Published Friday, August 21, 2009 in Sports

Heritage School set to open 2009 season tonight

By Stuart Crosby

The Newnan Times-Herald

Playing an unknown opponent tonight with a new head coach, The Heritage School is heading into tonight's 2009 football opener against Pickens Academy of Alabama knowing a whole lot about its own folks in red, blue and white, but little else.

Most of what Hawks second year head coach Larry Harrison knows about the Pirates, who play in Class AA of the Alabama Independent Schools Association, is from word of mouth.

But somebody obviously had a whole lot to say about the school from Carrollton, Ala.

"From everything I've heard, they're real good. They've got a new coach whose apparently done a heck of a job over there and a quarterback who's a tremendous athlete," said Harrison of Pickens Academy coach Sam Pearson and senior quarterback Kirk Lewis. "We're expecting a tremendous challenge."

Originally, the Hawks were scheduled to face Monroe Academy on September 11 but the Forsyth school was forced to close due to declining enrollment and the same fate befell Perkins who needed an opponent and the rest is history.

"Openers can be shaky in my experience," Harrison said. "A lot of things can happen but it will help us to get better."

Another part of the unknown is how three freshman will handle varsity football especially at wingback with Candler Rich who replaces his brother Christopher who graduated while Joe Bonner will assume the quarterback spot with John Veal replacing his brother Brent at the other wingback.

The Hawks will have an experienced back in fullback Stuart Bready who was among the top rushers on the team last season and Harrison is expecting to have 26 of his 27 players dressed out for the game.

"We're pretty healthy coming in," he said.

The Pirates were 6-5 last year under previous head coach Matthew Lavender who had a reasonably successful three-year run at Pickens that included a couple of trips to the Alabama Independent Schools Association class AA playoffs.

Pearson took over for Lavender after serving a stint at Hebron Christian Academy in Pheba, Mississippi that included the job of headmaster along with his athletic department duties.

The Pirates hosted a jamboree over the weekend at home and were defeated 21-6 by Bessemer Academy and defeated Tuscaloosa Academy 12-0.

Pearson relied on two quarterbacks in the two contests with senior signal callers Jacob Acquire and Kirk Lewis in the two games by Perkins with the latter entering the evening as the starter.

Last season, Lewis was the offensive leader for the Pirates as he was 86-for-172 passing for 1160 yards and 14 touchdowns while rushing for 855 yards on 145 carries and 12 more touchdowns.

Lewis appears to be the main force this year as the Pirates second and third leading rushers graduated but the team's leading receiver Michael Potts returns.

In 2008, Potts accounted for over 400 yards receiving and four touchdowns while their second leading receiver also returns as senior Casey Jones accounted for over 350 yards and had four touchdowns as well.

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