Beaty Said Bye Week Helped Warriors

White County Head Coach Curtis Beaty said last week’s bye week could not have come at a better time.

The Warriors take a 6-2 record to (6-2) Dekalb County Friday night. Beaty said the football season is a grind.

“Anytime you get a bye week this late, it gives you a chance for extra healing,” Beaty said. “It gets legs refreshed and rejuvenated and minds and all that stuff that comes along with that. So, it was a huge time for us to get a bye week and I think it’s been a very successful bye week for those kids that have been rehabbing injuries.”

The most significant injury the Warriors are dealing with is a lower leg injury to their quarterback and safety Tripp Pinion. Tripp has not played the last seven quarters of Warriors football and Beaty said there has been a silver lining through this ordeal.

“When your team leader’s not out on the field, as a coach you worry about how your team will respond,” Beaty said. “And I thought they went out and played a really, really, really good football game in Knoxville. And now they’re bouncing around a little bit knowing that it isn’t a one man show.”

Beaty said it was “massive” for the Warriors to win on the road without their four year starting quarterback. And as for Tripp’s status for the Friday, he said it is still unclear whether or not their starting quarterback will be healthy enough to go.

One thing is clear for the Warriors though, they are facing one of the Upper Cumberland’s best offenses this Friday. This season Dekalb County has averaged 35.5 points in their six wins and Beaty said it has their full attention.

“Anytime you play an offense that’s very balanced, it makes it much harder on the defense,” Beaty said. “Because you can’t key off on one thing, you got to be prepared for all the different stuff they do. They’ll give us problems, but like always our kids will take a look at the game plan today and we’ll go through it and start attacking it through the week.”

White County travels to Dekalb County Friday at 7pm.