BROOKS COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) — Seven years ago the Brooks County football team lost three players in a tragic car accident. Last week tragedy struck again when Cenquaz Perry was murdered while he slept.
Once again the Trojans are pushing forward and playing for their fallen teammates.
"I take these kids as they're my sons," said Maurice Freeman, the Brooks County head football coach. "To have something like this happen again, it really, really stuck a dagger in my heart."
The Brooks County football team knows no shortage of tragedy.
"It's been rough," Freeman said. "It really has."
"He was one of our big players," said Ni'Tavion Burrus, a Brooks County senior. "It's going to be for him the rest of the year. We're just going to go out there and play. In our minds, we know this is for Boosie."
"In his house, in his bed," Freeman said. "One of their teammates, a good player, worked hard for us. One of the players stayed next door to him also. That's tough. It shook us all up."
They play for all the fallen Trojans.
"The three crosses for the BC3, if you go in front of it, you'll see a path," said Freeman. "Those guys walk a path and they touch those three crosses every day."
A path they now walk for another Trojan.
"That was like a teammate," Burrus said. "Like a brother. We have to come out here and do it for him."
"I'm tired of the tragedies," said Freeman. "I'm tired of the things that are going on with my young men. They're going to play because they love the great game of football. He was a teammate, so we're going to play the best for him also."
A teammate not here anymore physically, but still a Trojan and always will be.
Freeman said Brooks County will play with patches on their helmets on Friday night to remember Cenquaz Perry.
