FRIDAY NIGHT HIGHLIGHT: Nine Pirates making most of senior season

Sep. 30—Take yourself back to your senior year for just a moment.

As an athlete, what were those feelings like, knowing you were inching closer and closer to your last day on the field or court with your teammates?

Was there sadness? What about emotions? Were you trying to cherish each and every play?

All of those things and more might be what nine boys on the Ash Grove football team are feeling right about now.

Brock Mooneyham, Chase Duit, Parker Crow, Nate Trammell, Elijah Morrison, Payton Griffin, Austin Lowak, Ben O'Marr, and Riddoc Ferrier are all playing in their senior season.

As we hit late September and the prep football season is at about the midway point, these guys know their time on the gridiron with one another is quickly fading.

"It's kind of bittersweet," Trammell said. "It's honorable to me to finish this season with my friends. That's the greatest thing I've done — getting involved, playing football ... creating relationships on and off the field."

Creating relationships is something the majority of these nine seniors have been doing since middle school. At least seven of them have been playing football together since those earlier days.

Some of the bonding has happened through going to Buffalo Wild Wings as a team on Tuesday nights. Going to other sporting events like volleyball games, or having sleepovers even.

Something that shouldn't come as a surprise, is that there tends to be some silly activities going on with this group of high schoolers. Activities that Morrison referred to as "goofy shenanigans."

Morrison described a night of playing tag at Mooneyham's house with the guys. The story ended with Lowak — who was the one searching for someone to tag — trapped underneath a piece of furniture with the other boys on top of it.

Through years of bonding in many different ways, the boys have developed more team chemistry as they've grown into the football players they are today.

"It's really fun, a really good part of getting closer with your teammates and just creates a chemistry, I feel, that's different than any other team," Trammell said.

Head coach Ryan Long is in his 11th year with the program, meaning he has seen firsthand the growth of these young men on and off the field.

"It is special," Long said. "And this is going to be a tough year to let them go.

"You can tell they've all gotten tougher. I feel like they're all tougher this year. ... They've gotten more successful each and every year, and that just comes with growth."

This group has had its opportunities to grow on the field. Coach Long mentioned a lot of them were getting varsity time as sophomores. After watching them go undefeated in junior varsity football during their freshman year, they saw the varsity team go 4-7 as sophomores.

Then, in their first season as upperclassmen, the group helped the team to a 7-4 record as juniors last year.

Coach Long has watched some of his guys battle through injuries over the years but never saw them give up or want time off. He noted that Crow, a wide receiver/linebacker, has been itching to get back on the field after missing the past two weeks due to concussion protocol. The desire to play through injuries shows Long the toughness his seniors have developed over the years.

From long, hot summer days preparing for the season to cold games during the late fall, these individuals have spent a lot of time working with one another to get to where they are today.

There's an added sense of togetherness when you bond over something you have in common. Especially when you can work on that bond year after year from middle school to high school.

"Just because we have spent so much time together," Morrison said. "I've gone to school with a lot of them since kindergarten. Just growing up together, we've been through a lot. It's just been a great experience to play a game together and commit to that."

Coach Long added that this core group of kids responds to one another well. From seeing them get after each other in practice or during a tough game, he believes they handle their own criticism well. He sees this trait as a sign of just how much they get along with one another.

The seniors have also rubbed off on some peers that weren't originally on the team. Ash Grove has seen two newcomers to the team this year that are in the senior class.

Duit and O'Marr hadn't played football prior to this season. O'Marr was convinced by his teammates telling him to give it a shot. Duit, on the other hand, saw the excitement around the team after a Week 1 win over Diamond and decided it looked like something he wanted to be a part of.

Long mentioned how much of an influence these seniors have had on the school and how he hopes it trickles down into the younger groups.

"They have had that influence," Long said. "And I just hope they have an influence on the younger kids for next year. There's still some kids that need to be on the football field that aren't out here."

One senior in particular has been thinking the same thing.

"I remember playing as a freshman and sophomore, looking up to those senior guys thinking, 'Man, that's going to be us one day,'" Pirates lineman Griffin said. "I've wanted since then to set a good example for the underclassmen and be able to leave an impact on them that hopefully they think the same thing when they get to be juniors and seniors."

Morrison added some words on what it means to be able to lead as a captain on the field.

"I didn't ever really imagine me being a captain or anything like that," Morrison said. "It's an experience that not everyone gets to have and I'm blessed to have those people that are looking up to me."

The seniors haven't just bonded with each other, coach Long feels as if he's had a chance to bond with them over the years saying, "I feel like we have a pretty good relationship."

The last two summers the team has gone to a football camp at Missouri Valley College. This camp consists of about five hours of football across three days and the rest of the time there was spent bonding through hanging out on campus to going to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City.

"Just getting to know kids a little bit and spend some time with them ... it's just a lot of fun," Long said. "It lets them know that you care about them ... and just saying, 'Hey, I'm here for you, man. If you ever need anything, we're here.'"

What does a senior season mean to a player as he's nearing the end of his high school playing days?

"Have a lot of fun," Morrison said. "Leave it all out on the field to have no regrets. Because that would be the worst thing after your last game to think you didn't give it all you had."

"Just the memories I made with my teammates and the relationships I've built and continue to build," Trammell said. "That's the things I find most important and that's what has made me enjoy football a lot more."

"Just the camaraderie," Griffin said. "Like I said, it's really a brotherhood. We'll fight with each other, give each other a hard time. But at the end of the day, we all know we're there for each other and it's a nice feeling to have. That's something I know that I'll miss being able to be around them every day."

The team seems to maybe have a game already circled on the schedule for later this year.

Griffin, Trammell and Morrison all mentioned that a top goal for the team has been to beat Marionville. Marionville is currently undefeated and is going to be a team that gets in the way of their shot at winning the Southwest Conference this year.

Winning conference and even a district championship is something coach Long said the Pirates have set themselves up nicely for this year.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Ash Grove competes in Class 1 football in the Southwest Conference and faces other area teams like Diamond, Sarcoxie and Pierce City each season.

The Pirates are 4-1 this year and have already defeated Diamond and Pierce City.

This week, Ash Grove has a long haul to Osage High School in Osage, Missouri. They will be meeting with Harrisburg for a neutral-site clash on Saturday. Harrisburg, another Class 1 school, is from just north of Columbia and is also 4-1 on the season.

The Pirates' lone loss this year came against Lighthouse Christian Academy.