#HSFT22 Stop #7 – Water Valley Blue Devils

Water Valley lost a heart breaker in round one of the playoffs last season but the Blue Devils are grinding every day. They know what they can do as a team, and they know the work starts now.

“We always want to prepare for a state championship and we’ve been working all summer and we have done a good job of that,” head coach Brad Embry said. “We’ve got a sign on our practice field that says get better today.”

This Water Valley group of seniors have taken that to heart. There are 15 seniors on the roster which gives Embry the utmost confidence that he can implement more complex schemes because the group has been around the program for so long.

“A lot of guys that played a lot of football and played a lot of football last year,” Embry said. “Like I said, they are fun to coach because now you aren’t just teaching the basics. Fundamentals are always important but these guys have a good level of fundamentals and we can start doing more game planning and things like that. It makes it a lot of fun and gives you a chance in every game.”

One of those veteran players is the guy under center.

“We’ve got a senior quarterback who has done a really good job for us, CJ Telford, played a lot of football and he understands the offense and like I said, that gives us the opportunity to really be diversified,” Embry said.

Telford has a connection with his teammates that’s hard to match, and they think his talent has only scratched the surface.

“Ten out of ten, our chemistry is up there from seven on seven and being around each other all the time,” defensive back Saveon Freeman said. “He is going to be good this year, he was good last year but this year he is really going to go up.”

Having experience at quarterback is like having a coach on the field.

“I’ll tell you how confident I am in him, he’s out there calling the plays right now,” Embry said. “He’s able to run our offense without me if he needed to.”

The Blue Devils have one simple message for the rest of the state.

“We don’t quit,” Freeman said. “We’ve got a lot of young dogs out here and they don’t ever give up.”

Water Valley is going to stay working hard in the Summer so they can see results in the Fall.