COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers were forced to cancel the week six game against Northridge due to unfortunate circumstances that are out of the control of anyone in the program.

Here’s the lowdown.

The Buccaneer football roster consists of 21 players – 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 9 sophomores and 7 freshmen. Entering last week’s game against Bethel, the Buccaneers were already without senior Brian Morrison, sophomores Maddox Curtis and Leland Brown and freshman Zane Lemp, leaving the Buccs with 17 players in uniform.

During the Bethel game Covington lost sophomores Izaiah Sherman and Zeb Woodward-Roeth to injuries. Junior Derrick Meyer and Kian French were also banged up during the game, but managed to gut it out and finish the contest. Plus, junior lineman Grayson Wills managed to play through an injury suffered in week four at Troy Christian.

In all, after the game the Buccaneers only had 12 players who were relatively healthy – 1 senior, 1 junior, 4 sophomores and 6 freshmen.

Due to these unfortunate circumstances, Covington was forced to cancel the game at Northridge for the safety of the kids.

“Man, I feel tremble for the kids,” said Covington coach Austin Morgan. “I keep thinking of the guys like Garrett Leistner, Jack Blumenstock, Derrick Meyer, the seniors especially (Brian Morrison and DeAnthony Bennett), they just show up and they work. They’ve done everything the right way for a long time and they deserve to play. I stinks we are in the situation we are in.”

The situation the Buccaneers are in is very unfortunate for the kids in uniform and the Northridge team Covington was scheduled to play, but in the grand scheme of things the program is headed in the right direction.

The reason, overall the kids have bought into the values of the program and have worked extremely hard throughout the off-season and the games played.

“I have the upmost respect for these kids who are out here,” Morgan continues. “It takes courage to do what they are doing. They are showing up, working crazy hard and doing things the right way.”

And even though week six is cancelled and there is uncertainty about future weeks, the kids are continuing to grind with hopes of playing.

“Getting healthy,” said Morgan in regards to the immediate plan. “Taking care of our bodies – continuing to lift and practice. Continue to work hard, get better and improve.”

Hopefully the injuries heal quickly and the Buccaneers are able to play out the rest of the schedule.

Regardless, the future is extremely bright. as long as the kids continue to grind.

“They have to understand and say, ‘I may be a freshman or sophomore right now, but in the back of my mind I know that if I keep doing this over and over again where I’ll be in a year or two years’,” said Morgan as the mindset the kids need to have. “It’s unfortunate right now, but these kids, man, they are going to be good because they choose the right way. They choose tough and choose to get better.”

Historically, the cancelled game against Northridge counts as a no-contest.