EDWARDSVILLE - Patrick Chism, a junior running back for the Edwardsville High football team, has enjoyed a very successful season thus far for the Tigers and has emerged as a vital part of the team's offense through the first eight games of the season.
Chism has carried the ball 32 times for 184 yards and a touchdown, and has also caught eight passes for another 152 yards and two more touchdowns as the Tigers are currently 7-1 going into the final game of the regular season against St. Louis power DeSmet Jesuit on Oct. 20 at Spartans Field in Creve Coeur, Mo. on the school's campus.
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In the Tigers' loss to East St. Louis 27-15 on Oct. 13 at Tiger Stadium, Chism and his teammates played about as well as possible, but East Side proved to be the better team on the night.
Chism is a Johnston Law Firm Male Athlete of the Month for the Tigers.
"Right now, I feel real humbled," Chism said in a postgame interview after the East Side game. "I think we've just got to keep our heads high and keep going for the next game next week."
The Spartans remain one of the best teams in the St. Louis area thus far and will enter the game 7-0 as they also prepare for their upcoming postseason run. It's another tough challenge for the Tigers and it's one that Chism and his teammates will gladly accept and play for.
"Yes, that's what we play for," Chism said. "For sure. It's like East Side and DeSmet's going to lead us up to playoff time, so we can jump off to a great start."
The team got off to an incredible start, going 7-0 for first-year head coach Kelsey Pickering and in the game before East St. Louis, the Tigers came back from deficits of 24-7 and 31-14 to take an incredible 49-45 win at Belleville East in what can be described as a character win. The comeback against the Lancers is definitely a good sign for Edwardsville.
"Oh yeah, for sure," Chism said. "I think when we beat Belleville, it showed that what we needed to do going on and helped up to know like, we have that fight in us."
Chism feels there's one simple way for the Tigers to get ready for the Spartans this coming week and the upcoming postseason run.
"To get ready for DeSmet, we are going to forget about this game," Chism said, "and we're going to move on and worry about DeSmet, and we're going to worry about and take care of our mistakes tomorrow."
Again, congratulations to Chism on his Athlete of the Month recognition by the Johnston Law Firm.
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