Howard football coach John Starr talks with officials before their prep football game at East Ridge High School on Friday, Oct. 14, 2016, in East Ridge, Tenn.
Mark WiedmerTaking a brief break from her job duties in the Howard School of Academics and Technology cafeteria Wednesday morning, Acacia Covington’s caring eyes twinkled and her voice filled with a mother’s joy as she discussed the football scholarship her youngest child, Tadarius, had just signed with Shorter University in Rome, Ga.
“I’ll be smiling all day,” she said. “My jaw will probably be sore tonight from all this smiling.”
What happened at Howard for 12 of its senior football players on Wednesday should make us all smile with pride. Especially when you consider the state of the Hustlin’ Tigers program before coach John Starr arrived on the scene last summer.
Prior to Starr, Howard had gone 5-44 on the gridiron from 2011 to 2015.
To show you the impact that can have on a young person, Covington – who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 311 pounds – said of the percentage of those games he participated in, “I cried after every one of those losses.”