Today’s interviewee is Creekside coach Maurice Dixon, whose team defeated St. Peter’s Prep of New Jersey 34-15 last week in a game between nationally ranked teams. On Saturday, Creekside will play at Mater Dei in Orange County, Calif., near Los Angeles. Mater Dei is the consensus No. 1 team in the country.
1. What happened in Saturday night’s game? What were the key moments. “First of all, St. Peter’s has a really good team. They’re definitely bigger in person than we first expected. We were able to come out and establish our identity running the football. They responded by putting together some long drives. At halftime we were down by one because we were a little too aggressive. We were able to go in at halftime, settle everyone down and make some adjustments, and we took off from there. Offensively we got into a groove, and on defense they started flying around hitting people.” [Creekside trailed 15-14 at halftime and outscored St. Peter’s 20-0 in the second half.]
2. How did the opportunity to play Mater Dei come about, and why did you decide to take on this challenge? “So many people have asked me why would I take a game against the No. 1 team in the country. I always respond with ‘Why not?’ It’s an opportunity to expose Creekside and our community to the entire country. We were looking for a game last spring. We wanted to play a national team again. After a couple of games fell through, we were presented with this opportunity. I teach my kids to be fearless. I would’ve had a hard time looking in the face of my team and telling them I felt like this mountain was too high to climb.” [Joe Maimone of Prep Gridiron Logistics arranged the game.]
3. How did you raise money for the trip, and what’s the itinerary in terms of when you leave, arrive, get back? Are there any fun non-football things on the schedule? “We did an online donation campaign, and the kids responded well. We had ‘Tribe Night’ at Hot Tuna in Tyrone. With the help of councilman Jaceey Sebastian [of the city of South Fulton], we also reached out to businesses in the Fairburn/South Fulton area for support, which we received. We’re flying out early Thursday morning. We will return Sunday morning. The first thing we will do when we get out there is go to the beach. The game isn’t till Saturday, so on Friday we will tour USC. Our mindset going into preparation for the trip is ‘it’s all about business,’ but we wanted to expose our team to some things they may not ever experience again.”
4. What should people look for in this year’s Creekside team? What is outstanding about the team, and maybe what are some of the question marks? “This team has great senior leadership. We have 12 guys in the senior class with college offers, but more importantly they care about their legacy. We’ve come really close to achieving our goal of winning the 15th game. This senior class is trying to do everything right so they can break through and complete the mission. I feel like we’re ahead of schedule offensively more than we have been in the past. The growth of guys like Vinson Berry, Travis Terrell, Roderick McCrary and Shane Kelley make it tough on defenders because their versatility allows us to get them the ball in several different ways. I think the biggest question mark for us is depth, but I feel like that’s a question that a lot of teams have, so we will continue to work to develop young guys who will be able to help us on Friday nights.”
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