Malden's football season wraps two games early

Malden’s Quentin Kilgore (left) looks for an opening to run against Hayti during their SEMO South Conferece football game last week at Malden. Injuries and low numbers have forced the Green Wave to cancel the rest of their season.

Delta Dunklin Democrat/Christian Johnson

Yes, the football season has been a challenge full of obstacles and adversity for the Malden Green Wave.

The Green Wave battled all fall through the first two months and went winless, but there was still this week’s game to play against Dexter and next weekend’s district playoff opener at least left to contest.

But coaches put the kibosh on the idea as head coach Jeff Bullock pulled the plug on the season after attrition and a late rash of injuries made the idea of playing any games an impracticality.

“We’re having to cancel the remainder of our schedule due to a lack of athletes at this point,” Bullock said. “We started the season with 28 kids, but after we finished Friday night with Hayti, when the game was over, I had 12 healthy students. (They started with 17 kids) and we had a high-ankle sprain, we had one with a (potential) concussion, and a broken wrist. It was just one hiccup after another.

“I had a student this week who was injured at work and he can’t be medically cleared. When we went to practice (Monday), we had 11 kids and 10 of them were healthy. We’ve been bitten by the bug. Every step we took seemed to be on top of a land mine.”

Bullock noted that not only is the health of his kids vital, but also that of his opponents because games like this can lead to more misfortune for both sides.

Admittedly, the numbers declination is not to be all attributed to injury.

Bullock took a well-publicized leave for the first three weeks of games; he returned on week four to find a slightly different roster build.

“We had 18 healthy student-athletes,” Bullock said. “We did our very best every week to compete with 18 kids. When you got kids not being able to take a break, it’s tough.

“We had kids who chose to stop playing and we chose to let a couple go. When we came back, the numbers weren’t good by any means.”

Bullock is unhappy with the season wrapping early in this way — especially for all the kids potentially involved on all sides, those opponents at Dexter and the eventual playoff opponent next Friday.

Bullock said he hasn’t had a chance to reflect on the cause of the injuries, but he said they will continue to look at how they can best assist to slow some of the aspects that can adversely affect a roster.

But for now, it’s the disappointment of not being able to go the distance with a core group of Green Wave players the coach respects.

“I appreciate the effort that they gave, and it wasn’t going to be tough to get through it,” Bullock said. “We have a really good group of boys. (If they had more numbers) would we have been a better team? We would have been a better team, but I don’t how that would have translated. I have too much respect for all those coaches in the surrounding towns.

“There is strength in numbers for sure.”