With the clock winding down, coaches and players on the Taylor Youth Ducks varsity football team took the top off the water cooler and dumped it on head coach Quincy Griffin’s head, signifying their Tri-County Youth Football League Super Bowl Championship victory Saturday night.
“These kids have put forth so much effort, and we have been through so much. We have been pushed down, and people have counted us out. To see these kids push through that is amazing. We have been here three times and couldn’t bring it home,” Griffin said. “Look around at these kids. These are all kids that have been in our program for years, and they all come home because they know we love them, and they are Taylor Youth Ducks for life.”
The Youth Ducks defeated the Little River- Academy Bumblebees by a score of 26-0 to claim their first ever State Championship in program history. It was also Griffin’s late mother’s birthday, which made Saturday night even more special.
“Mom always taught me to do my best in everything I do, put forth the best effort, always go hard and above and beyond,” Griffin said with tears in his eyes. “I know she is looking down and smiling at us right now, and she is proud.”
The Youth Ducks started the game a little slow offensively, not scoring until late in the first quarter, close to the second quarter. But once they scored that first touchdown, the Youth Ducks were off and running.
The Youth Ducks utilized their dominant running game throughout their championship game against the Bumblebees and found a ton of success doing so. As the game went along, the Youth Ducks runners got stronger as they broke tackles and welcomed any contact coming from defenders.
Defensively, the Youth Ducks played an outstanding first half, keeping the Bumblebee offense at bay while even coming away with an interception. With a 20-0 lead at halftime, Griffin was proud of the lead his team built up but was not satisfied. Griffin made his message of “empty your tank because there is no tomorrow” very clear to his team.
Griffin did not want his team to lose sight of what they were playing for and made sure they knew a 20-0 lead at halftime means the score is 0-0 after halftime.
Coming out of halftime, it was a defensive battle as both teams’ defenses took every yard gained against them personally. The defenses battled for most of the second half until the Youth Ducks finally broke through late with another touchdown to put them up 26-0 with a little over a minute left to play.
The next offensive possession for the Bumblebees saw them get a spark of their own from their rushing attack. The Bumblebees’ running back was able to find space down the sideline and run over 60 yards before being tackled inside the Youth Ducks five-yard line.
The Youth Ducks defense came up big yet again and forced a turnover on down, which allowed the offense to line up in victory formation and take a knee to run the clock down to zero.
Most Valuable Player awards on offense and defense were given out after the game as well with the Youth Ducks claimed both. Jeremiah Caldwell walked away with the Offensive Super Bowl MVP while Adrian Proctor walked away with the Defensive Super Bowl MVP award.
Griffin said his thoughts as the clock was winding down was that he knew winning a State Championship was why he had to come back to coaching.
“I remember when I first came back after I had the accident, I came back and I was on the fence, and I was watching these kids practice in this program,” Griffin said. “I hadn’t been on a field in a year and a half, two years and I was looking at the kids, and I smelt that grass, and God just told me I had to come back.”
The Youth Ducks gave the city of Taylor their second-ever football State Championship and will go down in the history books along with O.L. Price as State Champions.
