Seniors Blake Barfield, 22 and Jaylon Jackson, 9

After losing a beloved classmate and friend before starting the school year, everyone at NCS grew closer to one another. Through the loss of Mickey Martin, everyone has gained  strength and love to bond with everyone. But what’s different about this year in Nashville Christian is sports. Students that participate in every single sport they play for all kinds of reasons, but this year the athletes and coaches have two particular goals in mind: complete dedication and to play in Mickey’s honor.

“I’m just going to try to win the game for Mickey,” said sophomore Lelan Whilhoite. “I mean we’re just trying to play for state and work hard for that, but at the same time we’re keeping Mickey in mind in everything we do. It’s pretty cool how all of it comes together for us.”

During practices, all you see is a sea of students filled with strong and heavy hearts. Their main focus is to play their absolute best this season and for the following seasons, but to remember who they’re doing it for.

“There’s quite a few things that we’re doing this year when it comes to football, but we don’t play like regular football teams,” said senior Blake Barfield. “We play strong, we cheer for each other, we learn from each other, we remain brothers on or even off the field. But in every game and practice, we always remember to play and work as hard as Mickey did.”  

Sophomore Lelan Wilhoite

Regarding the student athletes, the coaches are filled with heavy hearts as well. Trying to keep everyone’s heads up as well as their own can be quite a challenge. You have to keep everyone in a good mood, keep them focused on what they’re doing and who they’re doing it for, and things of that. But they do it in peace, and with true, genuine love. “It’s hard to do, says head football coach Jeff Brothers. “I’m not going to lie about that. It’s tough on not only me and the other coaches, but the entire team as well. But we want to focus on working as hard as we possibly can to reach the state game and win it. And we’ll make sure that we do it for Mickey.”