PREP FOOTBALL: Bates, seniors lead Kelly to playoffs

BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

WISE, Va. – At his team’s 2008 media day, J.J. Kelly head football coach B.I. Salyers faced an onslaught of questions. Reporters asked about his quarterback, his fullback, the Indians’ chances this season.

They never asked about Jordan Bates.

Why would they? Bates was obscured last season by then-senior Chris Strouth and then-junior Devan Sproles, and he ran for a grand total of 114 yards on 24 carries.

“Last year we were fortunate to have, I thought, three pretty good backs,” Salyers said. “Jordan got the short end last year. Maybe other people didn’t know about him, but we felt he was going to be a pretty good running back.”

If Bates thought that 2008 was going to be a sequel of his junior year, Salyers quickly squashed the idea. Before the start of fall practice, the fifth-year coach approached the senior and demanded that he step up his leadership.

Salyers – an avid fan of powerful, grinding, run-happy offenses – told Bates that he was relying on him, along with fullback Sproles, to carry the team up the field.

Bates’ responsibility for the team’s success grew even more profound when Sproles injured his shoulder in Kelly’s third game, relegating him to punting duties exclusively for three weeks.

“I expected Devan to make it to 1,000 yards,” Bates said. “I expected just to run a couple of plays.”

Instead, it was Bates slashing through opposing defenses, accumulating 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns this season in leading the Indians to a 7-3 record and a home playoff game. They face Lebanon tonight in the Region D semifinals.

“I guess I am the workhorse, most of the time,” Bates said, “which I didn’t expect at all.”

Bates is one of 12 seniors on the Kelly roster. When they graduate, they will take with them 13 of the 22 starting spots on the Indians’ depth chart.

However, what they’ve given Kelly – including the school’s first home playoff game since the Indians won their only state football title in 1981 – will resound in the community long past their commencements.

In 2004, Salyers and his seniors inherited a program that was, in his words, “distressed.”

Football took a back seat at Kelly to the nine-time state championship-winning baseball team. Plus, infighting between different coaches damaged every athletic program.

Salyers went about bringing in a system that worked well for Kelly’s athletes, cemented a coaching staff that had been inconsistent and remade the town’s little league program so that incoming players arrived well-versed in Kelly’s scheme.

With each year, the coach’s building blocks stacked a little higher: from 0-10 in 2004, to 1-9 in 2005, to 4-6 in 2006 and to 5-5 last year.

“Our first year, we were young,” Sproles said. “We were just buying into the system. Junior year we finally came together and started working hard. Those seniors started it off [last season], but we didn’t finish it.

“I think this class – we didn’t start it, but we’re going to finish it.”

With all of the milestones the Kelly football team has accomplished this season – first home playoff game in 27 years, first win at Powell Valley in three decades, first playoff appearance since 1992 – it would be easy for the Indians to rest on their laurels against the Pioneers tonight.

That’s why, after Wednesday’s practice, Salyers called his players together.

With the sunlight almost gone, the Kelly alum looked from senior to senior, saying: “Don’t be satisfied with where you’re at. We’ve got to get this done for the town and for the community. It’s got to happen. It’s going to happen.

“Seniors, don’t let this be the end.”

scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543