Delta Streets Academy spent this week scrambling to find a place to play its first 11-man football game after a COVID-19 outbreak at Mississippi Delta Community College rendered the Lions’ temporary home field unusable. Finally on Wednesday night, they were spared a long road trip to Jackson when Greenville Christian School’s field became available for DSA’s season-opening matchup with Hillcrest Christian on Friday night.
The change of scenery might only add more fuel to the fire for second-year head coach Travis Upshaw’s Class 3A squad.
“They’re pretty fast, so we’ll see how we match up to them,” Upshaw said of Hillcrest Christian. “But they’re a little bit smaller than us, which is surprising.
“The game plan is getting the ball in Jay Lewis’ hands,” Upshaw said. “It’s easy when you have a kid like that. We have an incredible amount of threats to make people miss in the open field. I think that is going to be the advantage for us on Friday night, for sure.”
The trenches could be an area of weakness for DSA, but Upshaw is counting on sophomore Dameon Sanders to step up after starting 10 games on the line last year.
“He is the tackle and he’s jumping around left to right,” Upshaw said. “He’s the main guy. We know anybody in front of him, he’s going to handle.”
- Contact Riley Overend at 581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com.
