While stopped short of repeating their historic undefeated, conference-winning season, DeKalb Middle School Coach Justin Poteete has hope his Saints will rebound in the future to again compete for the crown.

“We didn't reach our goals and I'll be the first to take blame for that,” Poteete said in assessing the 2019 season on the heels of the 2018 season where his squad went 8-0 and won the conference crown. “These 16 kids that ended the season showed a lot of heart and grit, they dealt with a lot of adversity throughout the year with the amount of kids quitting and not being able to maintain the standards to remain on the team. I can honestly say the ones who stuck it out put their heads down and went to work each day and that is commendable.”

The Saints missed the playoffs this season but were able to end the campaign on a high note, topping Crossville 22-6 in the consolation game this past week.

“Offensively looked really good early and jumped up 14-0,” said of the 2019 finale. “Defensively we had too many breakdowns and our lack of physicality gave us problems. We ended up holding them through the first half and gave up a weak kick return for a touchdown to start the second half. We scored again on offense and defense bent but didn't break.

Poteete says for the Saints to again achieve greatness, more students are going to have to come out for football.

“At the end of the day we're going to have to have more kids come out and stick it out,” he said.  “Growing up here, football was always a sport that had plenty of kids interest.  It seems the interest and physicality has decreased dramatically in this community.  I hope it's something that picks back up in the near future.  I hope these 8th graders have a great future ahead of them whether it involves football or not. As for any kid wanting to play next year, we have to work hard each day and prep to compete for championships. That's the goal here in DeKalb County.”