A special Senior Night: Wagener-Salley team manager scores opening TD

Nov. 7--WAGENER -- Efird Johnson has known for three years now that his son Brenden was going to score a touchdown for Wagener-Salley's football team.

The War Eagles' seniors have asked for it for their final home game each of the last three seasons, but it was only right to save it for Friday night as Brenden, a team manager and Special Olympics Area 15 Hooper, took part in senior night festivities along with his classmates.

Efird's known it's been coming this whole time, but this week has been the toughest for him emotionally. Finally, game night arrived and there was Brenden, lined up in the backfield with the ball on the 20-yard line before the War Eagles' game against Calhoun County.

The play call was a good one, but the execution was even better. Brenden followed his blockers right through the middle of the defense and crossed the goal line, delivering a seismic spike of the football as his teammates crowded around him.

"I've waited 17 years to hear a coach tell my son, 'Let's go. I need you in the game,'" Efird said. "I couldn't have asked for it to have been in a better place, a better school, a better community, a better group of people, a better set of coaches, a better set of young men. I've told (Wagener-Salley head coach Willie Fox) before, Hollywood couldn't write a movie that could even touch it."

Brenden, who has a type of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, has been a fixture on the sidelines and the practice field at Wagener-Salley, and he enjoys afternoons watching USC Aiken's baseball and basketball teams.

He's got all of the referees' signals down pat and can motion along with them after they make a call, and he'll excitedly tap -- he's bigger than even his biggest teammates, and those taps reflect that -- the shoulder of whoever is near him while the War Eagles are on the field.

Brenden's involvement with the football team started when Efird saw Fox in the hallway and asked if there was some way -- any way -- they could get his son involved.

"Bring him out, and we'll figure it out," is how Efird remembers Fox's reply.

"Brenden's a part of our football team, and he has been for three years now," Fox said. "He's an integral part of it, not just being here. The kids feed off of him -- he feeds off of their emotions, and they feed off of him. He's not just out here hanging out with us. He's part of our football team.

"It was cool to see him tonight, and I know the kids enjoyed it, too. It was cool to see him actually get on the field and be a part of it. It was awesome. Football's important, but that's more important. ... He's a great kid, and he deserved it."

It wasn't too difficult for Fox to pick a good running play from the War Eagles' arsenal of them for Brenden, and he and Calhoun County head coach Wayne Farmer agreed on a plan for both teams to line up before kickoff for Brenden to score.

"I told him, 'Follow Nate,' and he followed (quarterback Nathan Chandler) all the way to the end zone," Fox said, then laughed. "That's what we tell our tailbacks most of the time, anyway. Follow Nate. Hey, he did it as good as any back we've got. He did a great job. I'm proud of him."

Fox said the touchdown play, which the War Eagles practiced during the week, helped give his team a little fire for a game that had no bearing on their playoff future. Wagener-Salley already locked up Region 3-A's No. 2 seed and will open the state playoffs next Friday at home against McCormick.

The War Eagles will open the postseason on a high note -- they've won four straight games following Friday's 62-20 victory, and they've been playing with a different attitude after a Week 2 loss to Blackville-Hilda.

Wagener-Salley scored 10 touchdowns over the course of 60 minutes Friday, but the 11th the War Eagles scored to start the night was the biggest.

"My emotions were all over the place," Efird said. "To see that, that 30 seconds, a minute, however long it lasted, that's gonna stay in my head from now on. From now on. I can't put it into words, just like I can't put into words to tell (Fox), all I know is 'Thank you,' and to me that's not sufficient enough. I'm speechless with words, but emotions -- I finally got to see my son play in a high school game."

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