[Music]
[Ray D'Alessio]
This time of year, there is a sound that is
unmistakably and undeniably familiar.
[football whistle] [players shoving] [whistle]
[Ray]
A sound in which dreams are built upon.
[Coaches Yelling]
There you go.
drive feet, drive feet, drive feet.
[Ray]
And it's a sound that can literally shut down
an entire city.
[Players]
Hey work on me, work on three.
One, two, three…Work!
[Ray]
That sound is high school football in rural
America.
[Dramatic Music]
[Ball Kicked]
[Whistle]
[Coach]
There ya go Brant.
[Coach]
Hey looks like a good day.
Hey, let's play, let's play
[Players Clapping]
[Coach]
Hey! let's have a good day ok
[Player]
You look around the stands you just see a
bunch of like dads just dressed in their farm
stuff and you got kids running around like,
you know everybody.
[Player]
There's nothing like the Friday night lights,
in a small town.
There's nothing like them.
I mean, because everybody's looking forward
to that Friday night.
[Ray D'Alessio/@RayDAlessioTV]
Here at Fullington Academy, football is more
than just a passion.
At the risk of offending some, one can argue
it's a second religion, a birthright if you
will.
And for the majority of these kids the discipline
it takes to even put on those pads didn't
begin in some weight room or on a youth football
field.
No, for them it started on the farm.
[Dramatic Piano Music]
[Brant Everidge/Junior Tight End/Defensive
End]
Ever since I could walk, I've been wanting
to go and ride the tractor with daddy, ride
the tractor with Uncle David, ride the tractor
with anybody.
All I wanted to do.
And all I still wanna do.
But this time I drive it.
I mean, I'll do everything from mowing grass,
picking up rocks, pulling pigweeds, you name
it.
[Ray Off Camera]
How does that hard work, the work ethic that
you learned on the farm, how does that translate
over to the football field?
[Everidge]
Well, it's like on the farm, say you're like
mixing something up.
Like, if you don't do it all the way it’s
not gonna be right.
So like say you're out here and you're with
the guys like, you don't like practice right
then the game's not gonna go the way you want
it to go.
[Brian Breland/Head Football Coach, Fullington
Academy]
You know that's the great thing about being
at small school like this is uhm, a lot of
these kids, you know, we have to do summer
work outs in the afternoon because a lot of
these kids are gonna work on the farms in
the morning or they're working jobs in the
morning because they got to help support their
families or help their family business and
things of that sort, and you know, they work
all day and then they come and work at night
with me.
[Ray]
In his first year as Fullington's head coach,
Brian Breland knows a thing or two about farm
kids and rural high school football.
Originally from Florida, Brian spent the majority
of his youth in Perry both as a player and
as an FFA participant, where he proudly donned
the corduroy jacket and showed cattle.
At 24 years old, Breland is currently one
of the youngest high school head football
coaches in Georgia, if not the youngest.
He tells me when the opportunity presented
itself to lead a group of young men from rural
America, he jumped at the chance.
[Breland]
You know, how good you do is how much you
practice, how much you work for it.
Uh, you know...everything in agriculture you
have to work for, you know.
And you know, it's one, it.it...it's not one
of, it is the most important business we have,
uhm especially here in Pinehurst and, and
Georgia... but in the world.
Uh, we would not be where we were at, uh without
agriculture.
So the lessons I learned in FFA, uh from the
both of the Gentry's Phil, Philip, uhm and
Mr. Claxton, uh, you know they carry with
me today the hard work that I had to have
to uhm, to do that.
It still carries with me today.
[Dramatic Piano Music]
[Jon Eric Watson/Junior O-Lineman/Nose Guard]
My granddaddy, he's..he's farmed and most
of my uncles they've all farmed, and I mean,
I just grew up standing up in the seat of
a tractor.
[Ray]
Fullington Junior, Jon Eric Watson is a rare
breed.
Having recently turned 16, Watson sounds more
like a middle-aged man who knows exactly what
he wants out of life.
It’s not accolades, nor is it some pipe
dream of playing Sunday's in the NFL.
When his playing days are over, Watson, like
the generations of family before him, wants
to farm.
[Watson]
You know, it's..it's not easy to start.
You have to start small.
But, you know dreams do come true.
Farming aint for...don't get me wrong, but
it aint for a weak person.
I mean, it's just...it's always heavy lifting,
you always, you got this, you gotta stay at
it.
I mean just like my granddaddy and the farmer
I work for now, I mean the one I work for
now he..
he gets up at four, four-thirty every morning
and he works till nine, ten o'clock at night,
he never sleeps.
But I mean the job's gotta get done.
That's just like out here on the football
field.
You may be tired but the job's gotta get done.
[Breland]
You know these kids really need football.
Uhm, they need a sense of getting back to
normal because a lot of these kids, uhh, you
know, this is the only sport they play in
the entire year and you know especially for
these seniors, this is their last shot at
it.
Um, and you know just getting them the chance
to come out here and play and let loose and
play the game they love, you know, they only
get so many times to do that in life, you
know.
Um, I tell them to kinda look around every
Friday night and take it all in because you
never know when its gonna end.
Um, and as well with that you know, there's
no other game in the world, you know, my personal
opinion, uhm that, you know, grows you closer
as a team, teaches you the physical and mental
toughness that football does.
And you're only gonna get that feeling when
you play Friday nights.
I can't even get that same feeling that I
have when I played, coaching..uh comes close,
but it's not nothing quite like the feeling
of strapping up and running out on that field...
uhm, with all those fans and everything looking
at you and cheering and all that good stuff.
[Rising Music]
[Player]
Everybody ready?
Get it Avery, Get it Avery, Family on three,
family on three.
One, two, three, family!
[Ray]
For the Farm Monitor, I'm Ray D'Alessio, Dooly
County.
