For legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who was once quoted as saying “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” the game of football was about wins and losses.

For McKenzie School head coach Miles Brown it’s about the stories.

“Every team is unique,” he said. “Each kid has a story.”

Brown shared a number of those stories Tuesday night during the school’s annual athletics banquet.

“We might have only finished 3-7 this year, but I think this is most fun I’ve had in my seven years at McKenzie,” Brown said. “This group of young men overcame a lot of adversity. We were plagued by injury after injury after injury. Because of that, we asked a lot of boys to grow and up and become men before it was their time, and they did that. They battled and at the end of each game, win or lose, I could see the love and passion in their eyes for their school, their community and most of all for each other. That made this a fun group to be around.”

Along with recognizing the varsity football team, Brown also honored McKenzie’s undefeated junior varsity football team.

Softball coach Ezell Powell also unveiled a banner recognizing the Lady Tigers for winning the Class 1A, Area 2 championship for the first time in school history.

“I was always jealous of Coach Brown when at the end of the night he’d unroll a banner for basketball,” Powell said. “This year it’s our turn to hang a banner.”

The following awards were presented at the banquet.

 

Football

Captain Award: Christian Estes, Tanner Davis

Most Improved Lineman: Tanner Davis

Offensive Lineman of the Year: Hunter Knight

MVP: Nicarius Peterson

Sam Dour Coaches Award: Taylor Ship

Highest GPA: Jacob Katzev (freshman), Sterling Huggins (sophomore), Nicarius Peterson (junior), Matt Lewis (senior)

 

Girls Basketball

Captain Award: Latoria Womack, A.J. Sanford

Rookie of the Year: Paige Odom, Danielle Viers, Raegan Davis, Samantha Scott

Most Improved: Brittany Gard

Best Rebounder: Dazia Womack

Offensive Player of the Year: Dazia Womack

Defensive Player of the Year: Kayla Shufford

 

Boys Basketball

Captain Award: Carrington Bonnick, Terrance Clemons

Defensive MVP: Carrington Bonnick

Most Improved: Condie Pugh

Offensive MVP: Nicarius Peterson

 

Baseball

Highest GPA: Chris Shufford

Most Improved: Condie Pugh

Offensive MVP: Roscoe Moorhead

Defensive MVP: Nicarius Peterson

Pitcher of the Year: Ben Presley

Captain Award: Tanner Davis, Wright McDaniel, Dustin Moorhead, Ben Presley, Matt Lewis

 

Softball

Captain Award: Dazia Womack, A.J. Sanford

Rookie of the Year: Whitney Boswell

Most Improved: Paige Odom, Mallorie Lewis

Best All-Around: Ashley Ballard

Golden Glove: Kayla Shufford

Highest Batting Average: Dazia Womack

Queen of the Mound: A.J. Sanford

 

Cheerleading

Coach’s Award: Madison Turner, Abigail Yates

Captain Award: Unique Henderson, Ashley Ballard

Junior Varsity Captain Award: Haley Smith

Junior Varsity Coach’s Award: Savannah Shipp