By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Call it “The Bandage Bowl.”
Friday’s game between Crossett and visiting Sylvan Hills should probably have a trauma-unit tent set up behind one end zone.
It not only will be a battle between teams searching for their first 5A-Southeast Conference victory, it’s a matchup between two of the more banged up teams in all of Class 5A.
The Bears (1-4, 0-2) have struggled with injuries and depth issues since the beginning of the season, and last week’s 40-20 loss to Mills left them even more depleted.
Starters Jacob Denson, Ed Smith, Anthony Featherstone and Trey Sims all left the game in the second quarter with injuries, while the Eagles (0-5, 0-2) have plenty of their own health issues, including recent surgery for senior quarterback Terez Thrower, who is still recovering.
“It might be a battle of attrition,” Bears coach Jim Withrow said. “It’s just one of those deals; it’s a toughsituation. We’re both in the same boat — we are both young, and we both have a lot of guys dinged up.”
Some Bears, like senior Justin Cook, have played with pain. Cook suffered a shoulder injury during the Week 2 victory over Little Rock Christian but remained active.
Withrow said it could be as late as Thursday before he knows the status of those who were injured last week.
Sylvan Hills started the season with many inexperienced starters. Even more damaging is the fact many of the injuries have struck down the most experienced players occupying some of the most critical positions.
“You just try to go from experience,” Withrow said. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. As young as we are, it would be foolish to get into something we don’t normally do. We just need to keep getting better and tweak it a little bit.”
With the season at the midpoint, Withrow is pleased with the progress made by his team despite the injury setbacks.
“I’m happy with where we’re at,” Withrow said. “I’m not happy about losing, but I’m happy that some of our younger kids are getting a lot of experience.
“I think we’re getting better in some areas and need help in some other areas. But we’re finding the route we need to go in the future.”
The Bears are playing more underclassmen than most of their conference foes, especially league leaders Watson Chapel and Mills — who are led by strong senior classes.
But today’s younger and smaller teams stand a chance of being the larger and more dominant groups once other teams’ upperclassmen graduate.
Withrow has tried to find balance between getting giving the younger players experience they will need in the future and utilizing his seniors to help the Bears to their fourth-straight playoff appearance this year.
“I think they understand that,” Withrow said of his young players. “Some of them, when they look across the way, know they are facing guys two years older than them in some cases.
“But to be honest, we haven’t talked about that. I like our seniors too much to just jump off the boat right now. We’re going to coach this thing until the end. We’re trying to give ourselves a chance right now, and it starts Friday.”
