Greensboro Spoils Party For Emory & Henry Football Team

The stage was set for a grand celebration in Emory.
In fact, an overflow crowd in excess of 5,000 attended Saturday’s home opener for the Emory & Henry football team and official dedication of the revamped Fred Selfe Stadium.

In addition to college dignitaries, the VIP’s in attendance included members of the fabled 1968 Wasps squad and the newest members of the E&H Athletic Fall of Fame.

The pregame ceremonies were elaborate and emotional. Some longtime fans reflected on the towering legacy of Selfe and the rich history of Wasps football. Other folks marveled at the high-tech scoreboard and colorful synthetic turf.

Three hours later, the prevailing emotion among E&H fans and players was frustration.

“We came out fired-up and ready to play on this wonderful field that everybody in our community has given us,” E&H sophomore tailback Caleb Jennings said. “We’re pretty upset that we let everybody down.”

For various reasons, the E&H offense misfired and malfunctioned in a 14-12 loss to Greensboro. Even the customary postgame tailgating sessions lacked their usual high-octane.

No person took the loss harder than fourth-year E&H head coach Don Montgomery.

“I feel bad because we lost the opening game on this field,” Montgomery said. “I think we’re a better team than Greensboro.”

On paper, the Wasps certainly appeared much better. Greensboro posted a 2-8 record last season, has failed to win more than three games since 2002 and opened the 2008 campaign last week with a 22-12 loss to Guilford.

Greensboro head coach Neal Mitchell admitted that his young unit was fueled by the festivities Saturday.

“We knew this was all going on, and we knew that people look at their schedule and decide when they want to do these type of things,” Mitchell said.

“We talked to our players about that, but we knew that once the game started it was going to come down to who gave the most effort.”

While Greensboro made 12 penalties and was handicapped by a series of comedic errors in its punting game, the Pride just keep battling.

“Our guys didn’t play particularly well, but they played so hard,” Mitchell said. “Anytime you play with that kind of passion and emotion, you’ve always got a chance.
“It all came down to pure effort.” 

The E&H coach refused to accept the pregame pageantry as an excuse for the sloppy performance of his squad.

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Montgomery said. “ It came down to our guys. They didn’t handle it.”

The Wasps (1-1) will try to recover next week at a North Carolina Wesleyan team picked fourth in the USA South.

“Hopefully we can get a win and rekindle our emotions,” said the 5-foot-7 Jennings, a crowd favorite due to his fearless style of play.

That rekindling process will likely start with some intense practices for the Wasps this week.

“It needs to be [intense],” Jennings said. “You’ve got to go 100 percent in practice just like you would go in a game.”

The Wasps will hope for better reviews when they return home October 4th to face non-conference foe Methodist.

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