Perkins' Pre and Post Game Speeches

I always thought Perkins' pre and post game speeches were great. He really was the emotional, on and off field leader of that team. But two funny ones stand out ot me more than any others and they were both before South Panola games. Before the game where we played South Panola in front of a state record crowd of 18,000 and some odd people, Perkins was behind the paper before we broke it down, and said the most redundant obvious line I've ever heard in my life. "Ok guys, biggest game of the year." He added a few more lines after this, but honestly I tuned him out because I was laughing. Because I was like to myself "we still have 7 district games to play!". Anyway, Perk worked us into a frenzy, in which we responded by being outscored 22-3 in the first half by South Panola, but playing them even 6-6 in the second half losing 28-9. This game went on to stir up alot of controversy after Eddie Strong and Ed Stanley claimed a series of dirty hits from Andre McCune.

The other that I thought was funny was before our very last game with Perkins. In the locker room, Perkins and Ephrom delivered what I thought was a very encouraging and uplifting speech, but then Perkins got dramatic by saying "can't you just smell the gold on your finger already!". Now I thought we had a good chance to win, but I wasn't gonna get ahead of myself- we still would have had to have beaten Moss Point (which South Panola did not). I laughed............on the inside. I hated it for the seniors though in this game because after our 40-11 loss, their historic careers were over. The exciting combo and nucleus of seniors that year, that put Madison Central on the map way back in 1993 going 8-0 at Rosa Scott and then going 34-6 in 3 years at Madison Central helped paved the way for the guys like us to wear the gold. I would give anything to be able to have enough rings for those guys too, because I think they deserve it almost as much as we do. I think of guys like Perkins, Anthony Ephrom, Derrick Garner, Nathan Rives, Larry Hollins, Andre McCune, Jermaine McDonald, and even big Mako as pioneers that paved the way for one of the true great football programs in the state of Mississippi. Just had some funny speeches. Here's to you, guys.