Injuries, hurricanes and a deadly car accident sting team.
By SHARON GINN
Published October 13, 2004
It wasn't easy, planning for the loss of one of the best quarterbacks in school history. But who could have guessed entering this season that Bethune-Cookman would lose so much more?
The Wildcats' first game was wiped out by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall on Labor Day weekend about 150 miles south of their Daytona Beach campus.
The school was closed for more than a week while power was being restored, forcing the team to travel from hotel room to hotel room while trying to keep its focus. Meanwhile, quarterbacks kept falling to injury.
Then, the shocker: Freshman Kovensky Pierre, who was expected to redshirt this season, was killed in a car accident on Sept. 14.
Yet, despite the devastation and distractions, B-CC is 4-1, 3-0 in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play. The Wildcats go to South Carolina State (4-1, 1-0) on Saturday, hoping to gain the inside track to the MEAC title and a possible spot in the Division I-AA Top 25. Bethune-Cookman is No. 2 in the Sheridan Broadcasting Network Black College Football Poll. South Carolina State is No. 3.
"I was in church on Sunday, talking to our former president (longtime B-CC head Oswald P. Bronson)," coach Alvin Wyatt said. "He came up to me and said, "Coach, how are you still doing it? You're having all these problems.'
"I'll tell anybody, it doesn't matter what happened to us. I want our reaction to be in a positive way. Our kids have been able to handle that adversity. They just get prepared each week to believe in themselves like they've never been able to believe in anything in their life."
But entering the season, even Wyatt wasn't sure what to believe. Bethune-Cookman reached the Division I-AA playoffs the past two years, largely because of the play of Allen Suber, a former Tampa Catholic standout whose ability to pass and run made him ideal for B-CC's unique "Wyattbone" offense. But Suber, the two-time MEAC player of the year, was gone, along with Steve Baggs, the 2003 MEAC defensive player of the year.
Then Suber's replacement, Lawrence McCloud, injured a knee ligament in the preseason and probably won't return until late in the season. The week after Hurricane Frances made landfall, the Wildcats muddled through in their first game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, using four quarterbacks to win 27-14. But two of them sustained minor injuries.
Wyatt was trying to figure out who would be ready to start on Sept. 18 against Grambling State when he learned of Pierre's death. An offensive lineman out of Delray Beach Atlantic High, Pierre was returning from a trip to Tallahassee with high school teammate Willie Jackson when his car slammed into a tractor-trailer on Interstate 10 near Jacksonville.
Pierre died at the scene and Jackson, a B-CC signee in February who did not qualify academically but was hoping to be eligible next season, had both legs amputated. Neither was wearing a seat belt.
It felt "like someone dropped a ton of bricks on my head," Wyatt said afterward. The players were in shock, said sophomore receiver Eric Weems, but managed to regroup for the game against Grambling State. The Wildcats lost a heartbreaker, squandering a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter to fall 24-23.
But the game provided a glimpse of what was to come.
Weems ran for a touchdown and caught a TD pass from Jarod Rucker. Rucker, a sophomore who until this season hadn't played a down for Bethune-Cookman, completed 9 of 12 passes for 151 yards.
Since then the Wildcats have won three straight, outscoring their opponents 139-40, thanks to punishing defense and an offense that has come up with big plays. Now fairly entrenched as B-CC's starter, Rucker has completed 66 percent of his passes. Weems is averaging 50 yards rushing and 70 receiving, and junior Ricky Williams, a former Boca Ciega High standout, has two fumble recoveries and one 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Even the threat of Hurricane Jeanne didn't dampen the progress. The Wildcats merely worked around it, moving their home opener against Norfolk State to 10 a.m. on Sept. 25, then soundly beating the Spartans 43-3.
"It's been very difficult for us to go on," Weems said. "But we've learned, we have to move on. Every day we play and thank the Lord for another day. Before every game, we always say Kove's name and let him know he's still with us as a football player.
"We're feeling pretty good about ourselves right now. ... We've made it through."
