Decatur's 'focus' earns them their seventh straight win
While the Decatur Bulldogs have already secured the Georgia High School Association Class 5A Region 4 championship and a number one seed for the state championship tournament, their 'focus' remains the same and that was on display Tuesday night in their non-region showdown with the Starr's Mill Panthers.
"One of the things we've talked about is not losing focus, not losing consistency no matter who they put in front of us," Decatur head coach, Derrick Burgess said following the Bulldogs win on Tuesday, a game in which they controlled the field throughout the night taking a 6-0 lead into the halftime break.
"We want to treat every game like it's a final, so once we get to the final hopefully, fingers crossed, we've done it twenty times," Burgess said of the Bulldogs' intent to treat each match as if it were a "rehearsal" in preparation for state title run in hopes of reaching the title game, praising his team for their performance in the win over Tuesday as they defeated the Panthers 9-0.
"I'm really proud in terms of how we played. The rhythm, the chemistry and the execution," Burgess said, noting his players maturity as a key factor to the success they have had over they past seven games in which they have won. "It's easy to get complacent but our code is standards. Let's not drop our standards," Burgess said of expectations for his players whether they are in practice or in a game or even the classroom.
"Asking high school players to have that concentration each day, it can be a cognitive challenge, but they've done well with it," Burgess said, crediting his players for their leadership. "One thing that I've really liked about this group, and when I say this group, I'm talking about the last four years, is our leaders teach tomorrow's leaders. So they're carrying on the torch that was passed to them by previous leaders with their own flavor," Burgess said.
"As a coach, I'm really pleased and really excited that we have the quality of leaders that we have and it's about leading when things are going well, when things are not going well, when you start, when you don't start, when you score, when you don't score, because that is contagious so our leaders have done an excellent job of that," Burgess said of his players.
Decatur will return to action on Thursday when they travel to face Tri Cities in their final region matchup of the season and will follow that up with their final two regular season matches as they will take on North Atlanta, followed by Midtown.
Decatur defeated Starrs Mill 9-0 to earn their seventh consecutive win
