LeFlore: Let's handle our business

LeFlore senior Freddie Dunson buckled his chinstrap and trotted onto the football practice field Monday afternoon.

No big deal, right? It is when you play at a school making its postseason appearance since 2004.

"At first, nobody believed in us," Dunson said. "They thought we were going to lose, you know? Then we started believing in ourselves and we started winning and everybody started jumped on our team. It's good now. Living the good life now. We're balling — trying to go to state."

When the calendar turns to November, LeFlore players usually put the football equipment in storage and move on to basketball season. But the Rattlers' 2009 gridiron success forced Dunson to trade jump shots for tackling drills — a trade-off he welcomed.

LeFlore's turnaround, from 1-9 in 2008 to 7-3 this season, has been one of the most compelling stories of the high school football season. Last month's injury to linebacker Timothy Robinson — when he was rushed into emergency brain surgery after making a tackle in the Oct. 9 victory over Spanish Fort — added a layer of intrigue to the Rattlers' saga.

Robinson emerged as the team's emotional and spiritual leader this season, and his teammates say they're playing the rest of the season in his honor.

"He would say, 'This is our business. This is the LeFlore football team, and this is our business,'" running back Chris Polk said. "We need to get our paycheck. We need to handle our business and get paid."

What's the paycheck?

"The pay is the win," Polk said. "Once we get to state, it's like we're billionaires."

The Rattlers won just six games during the last four seasons, going 1-9, 2-7, 2-8 and 1-9, but second-year coach Chris Raymond and his team have won six straight heading into Friday's first-round playoff against Beauregard (7-3) at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

"It's very exciting for me because I think this team has an opportunity to really go far," Raymond said. "We're playing well, but I don't think we've played the best game we can possibly play yet."

Raymond never made the playoffs as a player at LeFlore from 1984-88, but he has been in the playoffs as an assistant coach at Keith and head coach at Southside-Selma. Raymond also served as an assistant coach on Keith's 1998 2A state championship basketball team.

What makes the 2009 Rattlers dangerous as the playoffs begin?

"The kids are starting to believe in themselves," Raymond said. "They come out and work hard every day. The excitement of just going to practice is there. They're starting to enjoy what they're doing.

"We've got the mentality that we're just going to keep on plugging and keep on chopping wood. We're just going to keep riding this ride until we can't ride it no more."