About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nov. 5—CADDO — Cousins Bryce Young and Chantler Bolding have been competing since they were kids.
Playing ball in the front yard, they always tried to outdo each other. But now at East Lawrence, they've traded the yard for the field.
"He's my big cousin," Bolding said. "I'm trying to do everything better than him. It's just our competitiveness."
Last Thursday, the pair competed in a 43-31 win over East Limestone as the Eagles capped their first winning regular season in six years. There wasn't a clear winner: The pair combined for six touchdowns, three apiece.
"It's irons sharpens iron. He just wants to be better than me, and I want to be better than him. I want to show him how it's supposed to be," Young said. "I want to set a good example for him."
"Practice is like a dog fight," Young said. "We want to see who can make the most tackles. On offense, he gets to run the ball, I get to catch it. So if he fumbles, I get on him. If I drop a pass, he gets on me."
Head coach Jamie Suggs said that familial competition is infectious and makes the whole team better.
"We had one today," Suggs said. "Someone made a great play but it was only after Maddox (Harville) had goaded him to the point where he pinned his ears back and went."
"We talk trash. I'm not gonna lie, we talk trash," Young said. "Especially when someone makes a big hit. It's just like the motivation, man. When you make a big play, you want someone to be like, 'Oooooh.'"
Suggs said he doesn't stop it unless it becomes counterproductive because it makes the team closer.
"That competition is something that really prepares us," he said. "The fact that our defense knows our plays like the back of their hand makes it hard. We've been running against them for I don't know how many weeks and none of it's easy."
"It gets to the point some people are getting downright mad, and then it'll bring out the best in them," he said.
The Eagles regularly stay after practice just to settle scores, and it doesn't stop there.
"We bond in the locker room, listen to music, clean together. We do everything together," Bolding said. "I love this team. I really do."
Whether it's the Caddo Cafeteria or Guthrie's in Moulton, Young said a lot of the Eagles work together.
"We're like brothers. We hang out every day. We even got jobs together," he said. "We go to each other's house and watch film. Like last Friday, that's how I got the two interceptions, I watched film and read the play."
The Eagles haven't won more than three games in a season since 2020, but this year they've doubled that total at 6-4, thanks in large part to the two cousins.
Bolding is East Lawrence's leading rusher, averaging seven yards per carry. As of Nov. 4, the sophomore has 895 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Young has done it all. The junior leads the team in all-purpose yards with 998 and 14 touchdowns.
He's the team's leading receiver with 498 yards and its second-leading passer with 214, plus 286 rushing yards. On defense, he has four interceptions and six pass deflections with 41 tackles.
"They're special players. I mean there's just no way around it," Suggs said. "I haven't seen a lot of people do what a lot of these athletes have done this year."
This Friday, they'll travel to face the No. 1-ranked team in Class 3A, Plainview.
But Young said they aren't intimidated. The Eagles have been underdogs their whole lives.
"We're going to see some dogs on Friday night, a team that wants to go to the second round," he said. "Everybody's looking down at us because we're playing the number one team. So we're ready to go out there and eat."
If the Eagles can pull off the upset, it'll be the first playoff win in school history.
But either way, Young and Bolding both agreed that this has been the most fun they've had playing football since peewee.
"I'm always going to remember this time," Young said.
"This is going to make memories," Bolding said. "I love getting to play with these guys."
Source: Sports
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