So, our daughter Rachel attends Ensworth, and is a 9th grader. As such, we have become big Ensworth football fans this year behind the bruising running of Orleans Darkwa, who I might add, was not recruited. Ensworth is undefeated, and has home field advantage during the playoffs. The team seems to be healthy heading into the 2nd game this year against MBA. Ensworth pummeled MBA during the regular season, so no doubt the Big Red will be out for revenge.
Who woulda thought that Ricky Bowers could build a powerhouse team in less than 7 years, beat MBA and Brentwood Academy during the regular season match ups, and challenge for the conference title so quickly? Simply amazing stuff.
But our family has a long history with MBA, the 100+ year old institution that is deeply entrenched with folks from west Nashville, particularly with the Belle Meade/ Green Hills Crowd, etc. etc. 3 of my 4 brothers graduated from MBA, not to mention 1 nephew, and my own son as well. My Dad was a life long Board member practically. He loved the school. God rest his soul...
Suffice to say that when Ricky Bowers agreed to take on the Ensworth challenge (after having been hired away from MBA), no one thought he could assemble such a competitive varsity football team in such as short amount of time. According to George Plaster, Ricky Bowers could be a college basketball coach almost anywhere. He is that talented of a guy. Very capable in the head coaching position. That was basketball...not football.
I'm sure many families across town have the same conflicts tomorrow night in terms of figuring out for whom to root.
Personally, I like both schools, Ensworth is just a different environment altogether. Much different than the strictly traditional educational environment at MBA. Both schools have their place in secondary school education. Since my daughter is a current student there....
Tomorrow night, I think I'll be sitting over on the Black and Orange side. Go Tigers!
