NFL players put their pants on one leg at a time, just as high school players do. Except in the case of Baldwin County High School, they’re the same pants.
On Tuesday, as the Tigers prepared for their Thursday night meeting with Mary G. Montgomery, the Senior Bowl/Mobile Baldwin Athletic Partnership came to practice in Bay Minette to donate pants worn less than a handful of times by the future NFL players at the Reese’s Senior Bowl.
“It’s a great thing that just happened,” Baldwin County left offensive tackle Martez Taylor said. “They’re giving back to us. I just thank God for it. …
“I hope a lot of people wore those pants, a lot of famous people that’s in the league right now, great players.”
Even though the donated pants are “nicer than our game pants right now,” Baldwin County coach Andrew Davis said the Tigers would use them as practice pants because of the Reese’s insignia on them.
“I’m fairly old-school,” Davis said, “so we purchased team cleats with the help of members of another community. We’ve purchased team socks. We want to look the same. If we all look the same, then we’re not worried about what this person’s wearing and that person’s wearing. We’re more focused on football. So if we’re coming out here in the same cloth practice-wise, then that takes one thing off a kid’s mind of ‘How can I be an individual? And now I’m more team.’
“If you look out here, every kid on offense has black shorts on and every kid on defense has orange shorts on. Well, that’s football. You’re not allowed to wear something different than your teammates during a game, then why would we do it during practice? So practicing habits that we’re building towards a game is eventually going to help us win football games.”
Davis said the pants donation isn’t the first time the Senior Bowl/Mobile Baldwin Athletic Partnership has helped Baldwin County deal with the budget puzzle that prep programs must piece together.
“Being not only stylish, which the kids like, but also good material that’s going to last us for years, that saved us, over the course of four or five years, thousands of dollars,” Davis said of the pants. “And then you take what the Senior Bowl has already given us, which is $2,000 to help go toward the purchase of something that we need and that’s being able to buy 14 pairs of new shoulder pads, which hadn’t been done in four or five years. It increases player safety, and it entices kids to come work hard.”
Senior Bowl leaders formed the Mobile Baldwin Athletic Partnership to provide financial support and mentorship for underfunded high school football programs in Mobile and Baldwin counties.
Baldwin County got the pants because the Tigers’ colors match the Senior Bowl uniform scheme. Jim Nagy, the annual all-star game’s executive director, said the Senior Bowl’s donations aren’t limited to the Orange and Black, though.
“Every school gets $5,000 every year,” Nagy said. “Some schools have bought technology equipment, some have bought blocking sleds, others have bought shoulder pads and mouth guards – whatever the school needs. To me, that’s the beauty of the program: It’s going directly to things the schools need. …
“It varies by school, but I think school by school, especially in the public school system, there’s great need. And these young men, they’re the future of our community. They really are, so we want to pour in them as much as we can, and that’s why the other component of this program is not just providing funds for them to buy equipment. We do the leadership training and things of that nature and get a lot of people to come out and speak to them, because they’re the future.”
Nagy said the program had donated “about $200,000 worth of stuff” to high school football programs over the past three years.
Nagy said football fans can assist the Senior Bowl in another high school program.
“If you want to help out with what we’re doing in public schools, it’s through our Quarterback Club,” Nagy said. “Last year, we provided 50 tickets to every school in the two-county area. Our vision is we would love for Hancock Whitney Stadium on game day – I would love to show off high school football in our area in front of a national audience on the NFL Network, so to have these guys take over Hancock Whitney from all the different schools – maybe that’s just a weird dream of mine – but I think it would look so cool for the whole country. Here we are, we got more NFL players per-capita than any community in the nation. I would love to show that off in January.”
Baldwin County High School football coach Andrew Davis addresses his team during a presentation by the Senior Bowl/Mobile Baldwin Athletic Partnership on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, at Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette.(Mark Inabinett/[email protected])
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, talks to the Baldwin County High School football team on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, at Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette.(Mark Inabinett/[email protected])
