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The "yes, sirs" began spilling all over the table before Pearl-Cohn sophomore Cheyenne Harris, all 6-foot-3, 274 pound of his 15-year-old frame, could take a seat inside the high school's cafeteria.
Most of the defensive lineman's teammates had finished their pregame Chick-Fil-A, served to them by none other than the Pearl-Cohn football coach Tony Brunetti, and headed toward the locker room to continue preparation for that night's TSSAA football playoff Class 4A first-round opponent, Battle Creek.
Harris, though, stayed behind.
He wasn't in a hurry. Not in this moment, at least.
But six words he repeated at least three times suggested otherwise. At least as far as his long-term plans are concerned.
I gotta get out of here.
Harris wasn't in a hurry in this moment because he wanted to talk about his "whys."
About his older sister, who was a victim of gun violence and died when he was a young boy.
"Yes, sir," Harris began. "She'd be like 20, 21 years old now. I just know we would have been super tight. I think about that every day."
About his uncle, a former Pearl-Cohn football player who was shot and killed a few years ago.
EASY AS A QB: Why QB LJ Funk is right at home with Pearl-Cohn football after big win over Springfield
"Yes, sir. My uncle and my sister, they are my 'whys,' " Harris said. "Those are the two most important people in my life. My uncle was like a big brother, a dad.
"I'm 15 years old. But I feel like I'm in adult shoes."
They are the reason he wants to earn a college football scholarship. The reason he wants to "get out of here." The reason he has a 3.8 grade-point average and aspires to be an engineer.
Well, those are a few of the reasons.
Harris' hands, each the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, swallowed his helmet as he walked off the field.
A gimme interception had just slipped through those hands during what turned out to be a 70-7 victory against Battle Creek, which put the Firebirds into the next round against Crockett County at 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 at Pearl-Cohn.
Harris had scored his first career touchdown on that field the previous week, on a fumble recovery against Liberty Creek.
"That would have been two in a row," a coach yelled as Harris' teammates playfully ragged on him.
The football field is an escape for Harris, and for a lot of kids who play or have played for Pearl-Cohn, which boasts three state championships (1996, 1997, 2023) and three runner-up finishes (2015, 2019, 2022). Brunette has been in charge for the three runner-up finishes and the 2023 state title.
The football field also is a reminder of the reality a lot of them face. Where Harris' friend, DeMario Anderson, once played before the streets claimed his life this past summer. He was 16 years old.
THE BETTER HALVES: TSSAA football coaches' wives open hearts, homes to players
TAYLOR MADE FOR FOOTBALL: In NFL family, Ensworth's Taylor Hasselbeck got football start throwing passes to mom
The two grew up playing basketball and football together.
"We tried to keep DeMario out of trouble," Harris said. "When I found out he died, it actually broke me. I cried the whole morning."
On the weekend of his death, DeMario, who is the younger brother of Pearl-Cohn assistant David Anderson, was supposed to have gone with Harris for some basketball training.
Instead, Harris read the news of his friend's death on Instagram.
David Anderson received the news from a phone call at 1 a.m. when he was at work. He headed straight to the scene, to see his brother one last time.
"I never would have seen that day coming," Anderson said. "That could have happened to me years back. It could be anybody, any time, any place."
Instead, Harris and Anderson began preparing for a funeral.
"You can't save everybody," Brunetti said. "The community where some of these kids come from and are living in, they gotta go right back into that mess every day, every night."
That includes Harris, who has lived with his 91-year-old grandmother, Helen Hill, and his grandfather, Bobby Hill, who are his legal guardians, since he was four months old because his parents were "in and out of jail."
He tries to maintain a relationship with father, Cheyenne Turner, who is currently incarcerated. With his mother, Sade Harris, whom he said he sees here and there.
I gotta get out of here.
Perhaps the biggest big-time college prospect the Firebirds have, Harris is well on his way to doing just that.
"Cheyenne has a lot of potential," Brunetti said. "Gotta continue to work in the weight room. That's gonna be on him. But he takes care of business in the classroom. That's what you want. You don't gotta worry about him."
Tony Brunetti is like a father figure to Cheyenne Harris, not to mention all the other players and coaches at Pearl-Cohn.
He represents hope. Leadership. Accountability. Love, even though sometimes tough love.
He stands for challenges.
He's the same man whose team lost its first four regular-season games — to Montgomery Bell Academy, Christ Presbyterian Academy, Battle Ground Academy and Oakland. Those losses came in wake of preseason defeats to Brentwood Academy and Nashville Christian.
Those losses have been followed by seven consecutive victories.
"He has a degree in finance," Brunetti's wife, Karen, said as she sat in her customary chair on the track behind the Pearl-Cohn bench during the game. "Never used it. He said, 'I want to help inner-city kids. It's like he's never worked a day in his life."
WHERE THEY STAND: What new teams are entering Class 5A, 6A in latest Tennessee high school football rankings
UP NEXT: TSSAA football playoffs. See the second-round pairings for Nov. 14 games
A laugh interrupted her thought.
"Well, he has."
While the former Austin Peay football player from Memphis didn't play for Pearl-Cohn, all but two coaches on his staff did.
"He loves each and every kid here, whether you're cream of the crop or bottom of the barrel," said Koreyon Jordan, who played for Brunetti before going to UT-Martin. "He treats everybody just like family."
Jordan recalled the time when his mother was "going through a tough time," and Brunetti paid for him to take his ACT classes. Picked him up and dropped him off three of the four times he took it. Would accompany him on college visits and to camps.
"After I play hard in a game on Friday, that Saturday he's picking me up and paying for my ACT classes," said Jordan, an African-American Studies teacher at the school. "Taking me all the way to Franklin.
"You would have thought I was Koreyon Brunetti."
That's why Jordan and all the other former Pearl players have come back. They have a little Tony Brunetti in them. They have a lot to give, not the least of which is hope.
"It's an opportunity for them to see a young, Black male such as myself who can make it," Jordan said. "That gives them hope, somebody they can talk to who has been in their shoes."
"It helps to show the kids, 'I can make it out of here,' " Brunetti said of hiring former players. " 'I can do it. I can do anything I set my mind to. They've done it.' Showing them guys who went to school and played ball here are doing well in life and give back to the program."
And help kids like Cheyenne Harris "get out of here."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Pearl-Cohn football overcomes tragedy, violence in community
Continue reading...
Most of the defensive lineman's teammates had finished their pregame Chick-Fil-A, served to them by none other than the Pearl-Cohn football coach Tony Brunetti, and headed toward the locker room to continue preparation for that night's TSSAA football playoff Class 4A first-round opponent, Battle Creek.
Harris, though, stayed behind.
He wasn't in a hurry. Not in this moment, at least.
But six words he repeated at least three times suggested otherwise. At least as far as his long-term plans are concerned.
I gotta get out of here.
Harris wasn't in a hurry in this moment because he wanted to talk about his "whys."
About his older sister, who was a victim of gun violence and died when he was a young boy.
"Yes, sir," Harris began. "She'd be like 20, 21 years old now. I just know we would have been super tight. I think about that every day."
About his uncle, a former Pearl-Cohn football player who was shot and killed a few years ago.
You must be registered for see images
EASY AS A QB: Why QB LJ Funk is right at home with Pearl-Cohn football after big win over Springfield
"Yes, sir. My uncle and my sister, they are my 'whys,' " Harris said. "Those are the two most important people in my life. My uncle was like a big brother, a dad.
"I'm 15 years old. But I feel like I'm in adult shoes."
They are the reason he wants to earn a college football scholarship. The reason he wants to "get out of here." The reason he has a 3.8 grade-point average and aspires to be an engineer.
Well, those are a few of the reasons.
'When I found out he died, it broke me'
Harris' hands, each the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, swallowed his helmet as he walked off the field.
A gimme interception had just slipped through those hands during what turned out to be a 70-7 victory against Battle Creek, which put the Firebirds into the next round against Crockett County at 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 at Pearl-Cohn.
Harris had scored his first career touchdown on that field the previous week, on a fumble recovery against Liberty Creek.
"That would have been two in a row," a coach yelled as Harris' teammates playfully ragged on him.
The football field is an escape for Harris, and for a lot of kids who play or have played for Pearl-Cohn, which boasts three state championships (1996, 1997, 2023) and three runner-up finishes (2015, 2019, 2022). Brunette has been in charge for the three runner-up finishes and the 2023 state title.
The football field also is a reminder of the reality a lot of them face. Where Harris' friend, DeMario Anderson, once played before the streets claimed his life this past summer. He was 16 years old.
You must be registered for see images
THE BETTER HALVES: TSSAA football coaches' wives open hearts, homes to players
TAYLOR MADE FOR FOOTBALL: In NFL family, Ensworth's Taylor Hasselbeck got football start throwing passes to mom
The two grew up playing basketball and football together.
"We tried to keep DeMario out of trouble," Harris said. "When I found out he died, it actually broke me. I cried the whole morning."
On the weekend of his death, DeMario, who is the younger brother of Pearl-Cohn assistant David Anderson, was supposed to have gone with Harris for some basketball training.
Instead, Harris read the news of his friend's death on Instagram.
David Anderson received the news from a phone call at 1 a.m. when he was at work. He headed straight to the scene, to see his brother one last time.
"I never would have seen that day coming," Anderson said. "That could have happened to me years back. It could be anybody, any time, any place."
Instead, Harris and Anderson began preparing for a funeral.
"You can't save everybody," Brunetti said. "The community where some of these kids come from and are living in, they gotta go right back into that mess every day, every night."
That includes Harris, who has lived with his 91-year-old grandmother, Helen Hill, and his grandfather, Bobby Hill, who are his legal guardians, since he was four months old because his parents were "in and out of jail."
He tries to maintain a relationship with father, Cheyenne Turner, who is currently incarcerated. With his mother, Sade Harris, whom he said he sees here and there.
I gotta get out of here.
Perhaps the biggest big-time college prospect the Firebirds have, Harris is well on his way to doing just that.
"Cheyenne has a lot of potential," Brunetti said. "Gotta continue to work in the weight room. That's gonna be on him. But he takes care of business in the classroom. That's what you want. You don't gotta worry about him."
Tony Brunetti a father figure to players, coaches
Tony Brunetti is like a father figure to Cheyenne Harris, not to mention all the other players and coaches at Pearl-Cohn.
He represents hope. Leadership. Accountability. Love, even though sometimes tough love.
He stands for challenges.
He's the same man whose team lost its first four regular-season games — to Montgomery Bell Academy, Christ Presbyterian Academy, Battle Ground Academy and Oakland. Those losses came in wake of preseason defeats to Brentwood Academy and Nashville Christian.
Those losses have been followed by seven consecutive victories.
"He has a degree in finance," Brunetti's wife, Karen, said as she sat in her customary chair on the track behind the Pearl-Cohn bench during the game. "Never used it. He said, 'I want to help inner-city kids. It's like he's never worked a day in his life."
You must be registered for see images
WHERE THEY STAND: What new teams are entering Class 5A, 6A in latest Tennessee high school football rankings
UP NEXT: TSSAA football playoffs. See the second-round pairings for Nov. 14 games
A laugh interrupted her thought.
"Well, he has."
While the former Austin Peay football player from Memphis didn't play for Pearl-Cohn, all but two coaches on his staff did.
"He loves each and every kid here, whether you're cream of the crop or bottom of the barrel," said Koreyon Jordan, who played for Brunetti before going to UT-Martin. "He treats everybody just like family."
Jordan recalled the time when his mother was "going through a tough time," and Brunetti paid for him to take his ACT classes. Picked him up and dropped him off three of the four times he took it. Would accompany him on college visits and to camps.
"After I play hard in a game on Friday, that Saturday he's picking me up and paying for my ACT classes," said Jordan, an African-American Studies teacher at the school. "Taking me all the way to Franklin.
"You would have thought I was Koreyon Brunetti."
That's why Jordan and all the other former Pearl players have come back. They have a little Tony Brunetti in them. They have a lot to give, not the least of which is hope.
"It's an opportunity for them to see a young, Black male such as myself who can make it," Jordan said. "That gives them hope, somebody they can talk to who has been in their shoes."
"It helps to show the kids, 'I can make it out of here,' " Brunetti said of hiring former players. " 'I can do it. I can do anything I set my mind to. They've done it.' Showing them guys who went to school and played ball here are doing well in life and give back to the program."
And help kids like Cheyenne Harris "get out of here."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Pearl-Cohn football overcomes tragedy, violence in community
Continue reading...
