Full strength

ALBANY — Every high school football team in Georgia is starting over this week, but no one is starting over like the kids at Albany High.

No one.

Here they come, these once-around Indians, arms locked together, walking side-by-side, hooked at the hip and the heart. This feels good, feels right — feels just like it’s supposed to feel.

Just look in their eyes. Look at the way they look at each other, that calm, confident look. No one has to say it. It’s there, unspoken and running deep like roots under a sturdy oak. No one has to say, “Glad you’re here.”

They are. Everybody’s here, and no one is looking over their shoulder. No one is checking the exits and windows.

“It’s a new year and a new start, and all our players are here,” said Albany coach Felton Williams, who takes over as the head coach officially this season. Williams was the interim coach last season in what felt like and looked like a season in purgatory after 10 players left Albany High for private schools.

The main exodus came from the heart of the team. Former coach Reggie Mitchell left the program in the summer to take a job at Sherwood Christian Academy, and eight Albany players ended up leaving the Indians and attending SCA. Two other players left to enroll at nearby Deerfield-Windsor.

By the time Williams opened practice last August he wasn’t just missing 10 players, but 10 starters. What was even worse was the constant anguish of wondering who would go next.

“The biggest difference this year is that I can actually go home and sleep at night,” Williams said. “Last year, I would toss and turn and worry about who is not going to be at practice the next day. I would go to practice every day and ask: ‘Who isn’t here? Are they gone? Are they coming back?’ I had been conditioned to expect the worst and hope for the best.”

The best is yet to come, because it’s all uphill for a team that went 0-10 a year ago after being knocked down by kids who had been teammates.

“It was an emotional shock,” said Jontavious Morris, a two-way starter on the line. “The players who left didn’t tell us they were leaving. (Those of us who stayed) cried together, and we had to get over it.”

It was a jolt to lose that many teammates, but an even bigger loss because of how much talent bolted.

“We were mad,” Morris said. “It was supposed to be our year last year. When those players left they took some of our heart with them. They took a part of us with them. The people who left were our main guys.”

It took its toll on everyone, especially Williams, who was trying to hang on to what he had left while putting in his own offensive and defensive schemes.

“It was a day-to-day task not only trying to build a team, but to keep the kids here,” Williams said. “It was strange. And the strangest part was that kids who had left here would show up for our football games. You’re missing a 1,000-yard rusher and he is sitting in the stands wearing a Sherwood shirt. It was a strange situation, a situation I hope I never have again.”

The ones who stayed had no choice but to get better.

“The silver lining behind that dark cloud was that I had 44 kids who did stay,” Williams said. “They stayed through all the adversity. We were going into games knowing you were out-numbered and out-manned, and they still had fight in them. I told them to never give up, and they didn’t.”

Williams had to scramble to fill holes — holes that were everywhere he looked.

“We had to put new folks in new positions,” said Roscoe Byrd, a two-way starter on the line. “It was a big adjustment. It set us back. We had to build on what we had. We had a lot of heart. We had to have heart. We couldn’t just say: ‘They’re gone,’ and fall apart.’

“We got closer (because of it) and now we’re starting this year with a new attitude. We’re not settling. It’s different. It feels real good to know who is going to be here — who is going to be here every day, and who is going to be here every Friday night.”

That fact alone has bred confidence in a team with a lot to prove.

“We bonded, and now I have all the confidence in the world in this team this year,” Morris said. “We’re 50-deep and when you look at the players on this team, I know they’ve got my back, just like I know I have theirs. That’s where my confidence comes from. The start this year is way different from last year.”

It’s been a long road back for Albany, but the Indians believe they can win this season — and more importantly, they believe in each other.

“I feel great about this season,” said Chris Turner, a senior and two-way starter on the line. “Everybody is committed to this team. Nobody is going to leave. There is a big difference this year. I looked up to some of those guys. When they left, there was no one to look up to. I had to learn to be myself. I had to learn to be a leader.”

Everyone on this team feels good about starting over, and even better about how close this team has grown during the past year — albeit a long one.

“Last year, we were thrown to the wolves,” Williams said. “Last year, we had every legitimate excuse. This year there are no excuses. That’s the motto for this year’s team: ‘There are no excuses.’ “