1 September, 2010 / High School Sports
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Rockwall and Rockwall-Heath football teams are hosting the RISD’s inaugural Heritage Honor Before Victory Classic this weekend.
Rockwall was scheduled to meet Trevone Boykin and No. 4 area ranked West Mesquite (after presstime) Thursday night at Wilkerson-Sanders Memorial Stadium in Zero Week action.
Rockwall-Heath will take on Garland Naaman Forest tonight at WSS with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.
The idea for the Classic originated from Rockwall’s participation during the past four years in the season-opening ASCO Midland Football Madness in Midland. RHS head coach and RISD athletic director Scott Smith felt RISD could host such an event at the newly renovated (2009) Wilkerson-Sanders Stadium.
“Having gone to Midland, we thought it would be exciting for our school district to host games during Zero Week in our community,” said Smith. “We transitioned that into the Classic tying it in with our Honor Before Victory leadership program.”
When Smith proposed the idea RHHS head coach Mickey Moss was on board quickly. All that remained was to find a commercial sponsor to underwrite the scholarships to students from each of the four participating schools.
Steve Gates from Heritage GMC Buick provided that commitment. Gates and the coaches agreed that football games and scholarship programs were natural tie-ins with the RISD’s 3-year old Honor Before Victory program. That program teaches student athletes to give their best in competition, but in a fair and upright manner that respects opponents. Finding nearby schools to participate was no problem.
The Naaman Forest head coach, Mark Elam, established the Honor Before Victory program while he was RISD athletic director.
Elam was scheduled to be honored at Thursday’s game between the Yellowjackets and West Mesquite.
The Heritage Before Victory Classic is intended to become an annual event. West Mesquite and Naaman Forest have already agreed to return for Zero Week in 2011, when West would play Heath and Naaman would take on Rockwall.
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