Upon Further Review

Washes are for cars and dirty socks.

Certainly not for a football team in Stuarts Draft that was brought back to life three years ago thanks to a new coach and new attitude. An attitude not centered around the good-for-fans wins and losses, but one that revolves around constant improvement and life lessons that coach Rod Bowers throws out there like defensive substitutions.

So nobody is saying the 2008 season for the Cougars is a wash. But reality strikes, eventually. And sliding along a four-game losing skid—with 6-1 Rockbridge up after an Oct. 24 date with Fort Defiance—only makes the road back to the postseason look that much slicker.

So it’s time to face the facts: Unless some divine intervention falls upon that country-strong enclave nestled between the beauty of the Blue Ridge and the noxious belchings of Interstate 81, the Cougars won’t be making a return trip to the Region III playoffs. We can hem and haw all we want, but tears and pouts have a better chance of bringing back $1.89-a-gallon gas than they do postseason play.

However, a season ending after Week 10 is nothing for Draft to get its oatmeal cream pies in a bunch over. Because the final two games of the 2008 season should be considered the 2009 preseason. A glimpse into something that should make the magic of 2007—a bunny-out-of-a-top-hat trick that saw the Cougars fall in the Region III title game—look like mere child’s play.

Sure, it can’t be easy to admit that this year won’t be the year. But losing half its team after last season’s sweetheart run wasn’t easy either. It was a slashing of talent that would have crippled most teams. But by sporting a respectable 3-5 record heading into the off week one season later, it’s proof that the Cougars are not only back, but they’re not going anywhere soon.

Still have doubts 2009 is the year of some good things? Go ahead and take a glance at the latest Cougar roster. Last year, “12"s filled up the “grade” side of that spreadsheet. This year there are only seven seniors on the team. The rest are young and raw football players that Bowers and his staff can continue to mold.

Slice-and-dice running back D.J. Hines is a sophomore for crying out loud. As is the slick-shifting Darius Woodson.

Linebacker Michael Hicklin, who stepped in front of a Dae’ Quan Scott pass for the pick Friday, is a junior. They’re only going to get bigger, stronger and wiser. (Along with a plethora of other underclassmen.)

There have been growing pains after the talent purge from last season. There was a 7-0 wet-and-woeful loss to Spotswood that had the Cougars running offensive formations that Bowers admitted he’s never seen. During Friday’s 35-20 loss to Lee, first downs were negated by holding calls and the Cougars could only get six points off three turnovers—two picks and a Scott fumble in the red zone. Bowers was none too happy, saying Week 1 mistakes could not be taking place in Week 8. Teams don’t win ballgames that way.

“The missed opportunities were the story of the game,“ Bowers said Friday after falling to R.E. Lee in a game that, the coach later admitted, should have been 35-35 at the end of regulation.

“But that’s on us,“ he said.

In the midst of a scratch-and-claw affair with the Leemen, the young Cougars kept their wits about them. When the Leemen bounced up and down inches from the Cougars as they ran onto the field, nobody turned to talk smack. Instead they ran to the sideline screaming. They were fired up. The Cougar fan base joined suit. Heck, you almost had to strap Bowers down with a seatbelt. The mild-mannered coach stalked the sideline in front of his crew, barking out coach speak that echoed around Gypsy Hill Park louder than any Statler Brothers concert.

“If that don’t get you fired up,“ Bowers yelled, trolling back and forth in front of his team while sporting a give-me-a-helmet-‘cus-I-want-to-play smile, “then you don’t have no heart.“

Less a coach at that point, more a general ready to lead his troops into the trenches bordering Alsace-Lorraine. You knew you weren’t going to be watching a football game Friday. You had front-row seats to an epic battle.

There have been plenty of teams this year that have left the football field after losing to the Leemen that knew they didn’t have an ice block’s chance in an oven. The Cougars walked, some with their heads down, off the Staunton field Friday thinking they should have won that game. The coaches felt the same. For a team that young to hang with the talent of the Leemen is nothing short of phenomenal.

It bodes well for the future.

It bodes well for a majority of players on this team who have waited their turn to don the varsity maroon and white.

So go ahead, Cougarland, take your circa-1985 rusty junker to the wash after a good round of muddin’.

But there’s only one thing that’s going to be sparkling along the Target Turnpike in 2009. And it won’t be your pick-up truck.

This season isn’t a wash. It’s a prelude.