Chipley still unbeaten as it works towards week 9 game at Bozeman

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -One of the two remaining unbeaten high school football teams in our area is the Chipley Tigers. Coach Buchanan and his team currently 7-0 as they look ahead to a week 9 game against Bozeman Friday. The team’s 7th win, a 40-0 shutout of Destin this past Friday night. Coach Buchanan telling me things seem to be going well on all fronts for the team, and certainly the work by the players is key to that, along with the attitude the young men are working with!

”The attitude is really good right now.” Buchanan told me Monday. “We’ve got a lot of positive energy churning in the right direction. Attendance has been good at practice. We’ve had a hundred percent for 15-16 days in a row. The kids are working hard in the weight room. There’s a lot of positive energy right now. We’re starting to get kids back that have been banged up. We’ve been doing all this banged up, truth be told, missing some key players. We’re all back now, a hundred percent, so it feels good to have everybody back with us.”

Starting receiver Antonio Lewis and starting offensive lineman Gabe Culbreath among the key players back, says the coach. The coach went on to say a big part of the team’s success is the players willingness to buy-in to the program, which includes a lot of tough love and coaching.

“And that’s the kind of program I’m building.” Buchanan said. “If my son was in this program, how would I want him to be treated? And that’s what we do, when they do something good we’re going to tell them. If they do something bad we’re going to tell them that too. And we come down on them but we’re also the same guys building them back up. But if you are not disciplined, and you’re not holding kids accountable, at the end of the day you’re doing them a disservice. You know we tell them all the time, they’ve got plenty of friends, they don’t need any more friends. They need more coaches. They need some godly men in their lives who are going to hold them accountable and tell them when they’re doing something good. But also tell them when they’re doing something wrong. And correct those behaviors and move on. Because at the end of the day that’s our job. To build good men, good husbands, good fathers.”

As for facing a 3-4 Bozeman team that just lost to Port St. Joe Friday 58-20, well coach says he and his staff won’t let anybody at Chipley think the Bucks are going to be any kind of pushover. ”We’re not taking anybody lightly, I can tell you that. Bozeman played us a 26 to 20 game last year. At home so, they were one of our toughest opponents last year. The coach down there does a good job. We’ve got a lot of respect for Bozeman and we’re going to take this thing seriously. We watched the film, they had a lead on Port Saint Joe at one point late in the second quarter. So it was a close game. We’re definitely not good enough to take anybody lightly, I can tell you that. And even if we were, we wouldn’t. So it’s going to be all hands on deck. We’re anticipating a four quarter football game when we go down there Friday night.”

That game Friday at Bozeman set for 7 and is one of many we’ll feature on Friday Night Overtime.

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