From Rivals to Friends

By Matthew Scott, Staff Writer

    Can two people who are supposed to be the greatest of enemies become the best of friends? That is a question that was answered today: back in 2011, two High School football players who were the best at what they did, came together at Southern Nazarene University from two rival schools. Ten minutes apart from each other, Dalton Davis, who played for Union, and Michael Edwards from Broken Arrow played football against each other, not knowing they would be playing with each other in the near future. This is their story.

   In Oklahoma, if you are one of the best, you are invited to The Jim Thorpe All-Star game, which consists of the best in the state. Being in this game and being on different sides of the ball, they often went one on one with each other constantly during the game. That is really where they met to begin with, joking around on the same field, both getting ready to go off to college, and when they arrived at SNU they became the best of friends.

   An average day in Practice consists of many things. First they warm-up to get ready for practice, and then they are together on field goal team. Then they go their separate ways: Davis goes to the Defensive line drills, and Edwards goes to the Offensive line drills. They get together on different kind of drills, for example, pass rush, inside run and 11 on 11.

   During practice, they face each other every single day, and every single day one would think their friendship would be tested, but that is not the case at all. “We joke around before and after the whistle, but we have a job to do,” said Edwards. They know that during practice they need to do what is good for the team and that is getting your own job done to help the team. During practice they push each other and try to make the other better; the whole team does that: be a buddy outside of work, but during work get the job done. They get on to each other all the time during practice; you just cannot let it go outside of football. Outside of Practice Edwards and Davis hang out with each other more than most and have become the best of friends on and off the field.