We really don't know who to give the kudos to for the decision on Oct. 26 to keep Flomaton High School starting quarterback Daquan Johnson on the sidelines during the second half of Flomaton High School's 20-13 victory over T.R. Miller High School.
We believe it was a combination of the medical staff and Flomaton head coach Doug Vickery. We applaud both.
We've covered a lot of Flomaton football games over the years and that Friday night was something special. Flomaton was in a do or die situation – win the game and go the playoffs, lose the game and stay home. The stakes were high. T.R. Miller had already clinched a playoff berth.
Our bet is 20 or more years ago, Johnson would have been told to suck it up and go play in the second half. It was one of the biggest games in Flomaton history, but the right decision was made to keep Johnson on the sidelines to prevent further injury.
We talked with Coach Vickery and he said the medical staff told him to keep him out. He also said he wasn't about to risk a player's health over one football game. Hats off to Coach Vickery.
We know Coach Vickery would have loved to have had Johnson taking snaps in the second half, but the coach and medical staff said it wasn't in the best interest of the individual player.
We speculate, but don't know for sure, the extent of Johnson's injury, but we do know the right decisions were made on Oct. 26 at Flomaton High School.
Too often we get caught up in the 'win at all costs' mentality when we lose sight of the young men who are putting their bodies on the line to achieve that goal.
Could Johnson have played in the second half? Sure he could. Could another injury have caused a more serious injury? Sure it could. Did Coach Vickery want Johnson to play in the second half? Sure he did.
Coach Vickery wants to win as bad as any football coach. But on that night, he put a player's health ahead of anything else.
He talked about the resiliency of his football team, which overcame Johnson's injury to win. We salute the resiliency of Coach Vickery for seeing the big picture of an individual player's health over winning a football game.
