Cavaliers move forward without Ward as he recovered from open heart surgery
This is part two of a three-part series. You can see the first part here.
ALAMO, Tenn — With Crockett County head coach Kevin Ward out recovering from open heart surgery, the Cavaliers had to push forward without their leader as the season was set to begin in one week. Interim head coach J.R. Kirby was tasked with getting the team ready for that week’s jamboree, while he and his team’s minds wandered about the health of Ward.
“I think it was probably a bit more stressful with the kids not knowing what was going on and us just getting keeping them together,” Kirby said.
It was emotional for the players when they found out the news their head coach would miss the rest of the season and it hadn’t even begun, junior quarterback Jacob Fitzhugh said.
“Well our emotions when coach Ward you know had his heart attack, it was pretty rough, we were all shocked,” Fitzhugh said.
Knowing Ward wouldn’t return for the 2016 season, the Cavaliers put their hard hats on went to work in honor of Ward.
“We tried to put it behind us when we went out to practice, you know we can’t do anything about it, we can’t control that, we can just control what we can control and that was us trying to get better,” Kirby said.
As the team took the field for their jamboree, Ward’s daughter Abbie, was his eyes and ears.
“She was kind of my eyes during the jamboree and she was sending me texts,” Ward said.
Ward would soon be able to watch the games in person, just from a spot he hadn’t in over 20 years, the press box. But after spending six to seven weeks in the press box, Ward would grow uncomfortable watching from a distance and during the Dyersburg game, he ventured onto the sidelines where he would soon hear a familiar voice.
“It’s my youngest daughter, she’s come out of the stands, standing on the sideline, you know screaming at me, Daddy you’re not supposed to be down here, you’re not supposed to be down here,” Ward said.
Also weighing in on his action was Ward’s wife Kim.
“She goes you know, what you’ve done tonight was very selfish, you’ve had an opportunity to come back and coach football, you almost lost your life because of that operation,” Ward said.
Tune in Thursday night to see the final night of this three day special.
