Raiders remember friend during run at title

By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports editor
November 22, 2003
CLINTON It has been a glorious season for the Lamar School football team.
And it has been a painful one.
Some 30 minutes following Lamar's 48-7 MPSA Class AAA Division II Championship Game win over Madison-Ridgeland Academy on Friday afternoon, there were still players, parents and fans milling around on the field congratulating each other for a remarkable season.
There were 17 senior football players receiving handshakes and hugs on the chewed up turf of Mississippi College's Robinson-Hale Stadium.
But one was missing Drew Denney. His memory, however, was not.
Denney was killed in a tragic one-vehicle accident last spring, leaving a gap that will never be filled in the hearts and lives of those who knew him.
But even in his absence, the big man who was loved by many still played a key role in Lamar's march to its first-ever state football championship.
Everywhere you turn on the Lamar School campus you are likely to see the number 75, Denney's jersey number.
As the team said its prayer in the middle of the field immediately following the game, the biggest man on the field senior lineman Roland Terry had red eyes and tears rolling down his cheeks.
Lamar head coach Mac Barnes, himself fighting to control his emotions, said that the memory of Denney played a very real part on his team's road to the title.
Waters agreed.
Barnes made sure throughout the year that the players kept focused on winning the state title for themselves, as well as for their fallen friend.
That it was.
For this group of young men the 2003 state championship and big No. 75 will always be intertwined and will never be forgotten.
That you can count on.