Sports

South Georgia will grow with Lester

Paul Dehner Jr.

The scene following Saturday night’s 50-43 defeat against the Louisville Fire felt surprisingly upbeat for the South Georgia Wildcats.

Players and coaches alike filled the Civic Center turf and lamented a night marked by miscues. They reeled off a grocery list of the usual suspects: turnovers, penalties, miscommunication.

Still, a palpable optimism followed most explanations. All expressed dissatisfaction with the victory, but the sky wasn’t falling.

After all, this was Week 2. There are 14 games to go. They could save the crisis alarm for another day.

But beyond the field of players chatting with friends, through the back hallways, the Wildcats locker room sat in silence.

There, Wildcats quarterback Cecil Lester sat as one of two players in the locker room, temporarily shunning the social scene on the field.

Following his first loss as a starter for the Wildcats, Lester struggled to see the big picture or even his 283 yards and six touchdowns, categories he led the league in with statistics from Sunday’s games still pending.

Lester saw three interceptions and one loss.

Though many players are still learning about the personalities in the group of teammates who have known each other for less than a month, it has been no secret Lester oozes personality.

By all accounts, he’s been the life of this party. He laughs, jokes and loves to talk.

Yet here he was, barely audible at times, his soft responses screaming of the depth this defeat cut into Lester.

“A lot of guys played to winning ability,” he said. “I know at times I didn’t show the heart of a champion.”

Lester sat as a backup and watched great starting quarterbacks the last two seasons. He felt the sting of losses before, but this was different.

Never before had he invested so much into a team or season. This year represents his shot to show he can lead a team.

Lester’s devastation at the loss could be a considered to be a glimpse of positive. It shows an unrelenting competitive drive and deep commitment to winning.

“We got to get better,” Lester said. “We just have to do better.”

But on a team trained to never say, “I,” it was obvious Lester pointed to himself when he said, “We.”

He was shouldering the blame.

Even though he wasn’t the one flagged for holding twice on the final drive, both negating huge gains — one of which would have been an incredible game-tying pass — and he wasn’t the one failed to stop the Fire on any of their final three drives.

Coach Derek Stingley understood the loss stemmed from much more than Lester, but he wouldn’t pull any punches.

“He didn’t do great, he didn’t do bad,” Stingley said. “He didn’t let the offense develop early in the game, if he just would have held on to the ball a little bit earlier and gave us opportunities to go downfield we wouldn’t have been throwing those hitches and those little routes — that’s what Louisville wants us to do. Once he sees the film I am sure he will learn from it and we will get better at the quarterback position.”

Therein lies perhaps the defining element of the Wildcats’ season.

As much as Lester will learn about coverages, check downs and pressure, this was his first lesson in the emotional aspect of starting at quarterback.

For the Wildcats to return to the playoffs, they will need a confident Lester under center. His ability to handle an oncoming pass rusher will be just as important as his ability to handle a defeat.

In arena football, teams live and die by the play of their QB. The same can be said for this year’s Wildcats.

What we learned in the opener at Tennessee Valley was a resourceful Lester has the potential to be a playmaker as good as D. Bryant was last season.

What we learned Saturday was some games will be laced with growing pains and end in disappointment.

What we will learn this week is how well Lester can bounce back from failure.

“You have to have a short-term memory,” he said.

If Lester listens to himself, it won’t be long until he again becomes the life of the Wildcats’ party.

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