For a second season, Hancock High School athletes have joined the athletes of Bayless High School on the football field. The team, led by Bayless teacher and head coach Jerry Woods, consists of 27 Bayless players and 20 Hancock players, and together, the group is working to overcome the rivalry between the two South County high schools when it comes to football.
“There are issues because these are rival schools in almost all the other sports,” Woods said. “That has been a battle. Especially last year, when they came over, it was short notice, and I think there was a concept that, ‘Oh, these are our rivals, and now we’ve got to be teammates on the football team.’”
Hancock’s football team used to play with Bishop DuBourg High School — a coeducational Catholic school located in St. Louis city — but Woods says, “I guess they just wanted to go in a different direction.” The athletic director at Hancock then reached out to Bayless’s administration about merging the two public high school teams; the proposition was next brought to Woods, who said, “Absolutely.”
While Bayless and Hancock may face off against each other in a slew of other sports, Woods has spent this season and last working with the boys to foster teamwork and camaraderie.
“The ultimate goal — in my opinion — of sports is to produce good young men who are going to be productive citizens, husbands and community leaders,” Woods said. “So we do talk about life stuff and how to treat people.”
The team, which currently holds a 1-6 record, has one more game on Oct. 24 before heading into post-season tournaments.
“We don’t play an easy schedule,” Woods said. “People give you crap, but we aren’t playing a bunch of teams that are really bad. We’re playing teams that are pretty good, and we’ve got to do better.”
But despite Bayless and Hancock’s losing record, the players have made strides — according to Woods — in how they handle being down during the game. On the team’s one win against Crystal City with a 43-20 score, Woods says the boys came back; in another game, they came back, only to lose the lead again.
“In the past, when we were down, we would give up, but we have played some really great football when we’re down,” Woods said. “I think the grit is getting there.”
As the players from Bayless and Hancock wrap up their season, Woods reflects on what the sport means for the boys, especially as they navigate a team split between two high schools.
“Football’s a great sport. You learn a lot about yourself; you get knocked down and you need to get back up,” Woods said. “I think it’s a great team-building sport, and you learn a lot of grit from it.”