The Houston County Fighting Irish 2014 football squad is a team to remember for all time.  With stout determination and fearlessness they have battled all year to keep their numbers high but injuries have plagued them and their squad has dwindled to 14, barely above the scant 11 needed to field a team.

But this is not a story about the quantity of that number.  This is a story about the quality of that number.  What is left in the numbers of this 2014 Irish football team is a program that will be marked in history.  These young student athletes play with the hearts of champions.  These young men, and the school they represent, are the future and the strength of Houston County.  They carry the mail for the County on Friday nights and they do it under a tremendous hardship.

They are 14 hearts of stone, 14 hearts of Irish green and gold.  They come together, on Friday nights, against overwhelming odds to perform, to work, and to sacrifice.  They endure this long season of hard knocks for their families and for their school.  They withstand the fight against the 50-60 young men on the other side of the field every Friday night for their honor and for their pride and they do it for the nearly four score years of history making Irish teams that did it before them.  But most of all they do it for themselves because these Houston Countians just won’t quit.  In their hearts of green and white and gold they will not let their tradition die.  Not on their watch.

Showing up, representing?  It is now a green badge of honor that this team of Irish wear on game night.  They are Fighting Irish survivors and they are models of true grit, unyielding endurance, and dogged tenacity.

They are the transition between feast and famine. They may be small in numbers and short on wins but they still share a common bond and a common connection with those heroic Irish teams of the past.  They are hungry for another win.  They sweat and bleed together from Monday through Thursday working to get one.  They work out in the weight rooms during the winter and they run in the summer.  They come together, all 14 of them now with their injured players, coaches, and legacy on certain, special Friday nights.  In the fall of Houston County with a cool crispness in the air these giants of the gridiron continue a tradition of green Irish football pride.  Its not just what they do, it is who they are.  It is the true heart of green and white and gold all over.

We can see it from Potneck.

Many current Houston County citizens have stood on the Houston County fields of old and new and sweated and bled and gave their all for Irish green.  Those Irish warriors of old are now called to return once more to the Friday night lights.  Your young Irish players need you.  On at least one Friday night this year, go and cheer loudly for your team.  They will hear you.  They fight the good fight for you, for your memory.  Honor them now with your presence and your voices.  Show them how proud you are of them for carrying your flag.

Rise up, 2014 Houston County Fighting Irish Football Team.  You stand on the shoulders of champions and they will keep you strong.

Much honor and respect from Potneck to our southern neighbors in Houston County.

RLB4