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A Holy War in Louisiana Posted: Tuesday April 29, 2003 12:37 PM
If you still don’t buy talk of football being akin to religion in the South, take a look at the latest fuss down in Shreveport, La., the Holy War between Pastor Denny and Pastor Johnny. Evangel Christian Academy has long fielded one the country’s top prep football teams -- at least since the First Assembly of God-affiliated school opened its doors in 1989. A sports cable network has the Eagles booked to play another national power, Concord De La Salle (Calif.), in October. Only don’t tune in expecting to see all-everything quarterback John David Booty. Booty is blowing off his senior year of high school to enroll at Southern Cal this summer. The 18-year-old speeded up his departure after his father, John Dean Booty, was recently fired by Evangel Christian. John Dean Booty was not only the Evangel quarterbacks coach, having tutored the likes of his oldest son, Josh Booty, and University of Miami quarterback in-waiting Brock Berlin, but also the head of the school and a minister at the church for 15 years.
But the elder Booty is out now, apparently after butting heads one too many times with Denny Duron, Evangel’s founder and First Assembly's senior pastor. Duron, who failed to return several calls by SI.com, has described the parting only as a “ministry matter." Even John Dean Booty is a little fuzzy about his dismissal, saying things began to go downhill when he was asked to take a sabbatical last January. “[Duron] just said it was ministerial reasons, whatever that means," Booty said. “I haven’t been unfaithful. I haven’t done anything that would have violated any school issue or faculty-student issues. I think he felt like he and I were going in two different directions." Booty may have sealed his fate when he branched out with his “Our Home Fellowship" Bible study program. He believes organized church cuts into family time and his Web site contains such statements as:
As a result, John David Booty, thought to be one of the nation’s top QB prospects heading into what would have been his senior high school season, has left Evangel, too. Forget that the school returns 10 of 11 starters on offense and is primed for a run at the mythical national title. Booty's father has always served as his personal coach and confidant; how could he not stand up for him? The Booty plan was always to leave for college in January of his high school senior year, anyway. That’s why he pumped up his transcript with summer classes, and why he only needs a summer English course before heading to USC in July. “What happened was very upsetting," John David Booty said of his father’s firing. “It put a bad feeling in my heart about things that were going on and the way the school was going. ... I just didn’t feel I could be a part of that any more." Now all the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Booty has to do is follow in the USC footsteps of Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer. Is he up to it? His father says he would have been the No. 1 high school quarterback next fall, while recruiting services rank Booty a consensus top 5 player at the position. Evangel head coach Dennis Dunn envisions a bit of a learning curve for Booty at USC. Scouting services rave about the youngster's polished athletic skills, although some wonder if his stats (3,956 yards and 37 TDs in 15 games as a junior) weren't inflated by a system that had him throwing almost every down from the shotgun. Then again, Booty, following in the football football footsteps of brothers Josh and Abram, has always benefited from the system. He was tutored by his father at a football school, held back a year in grade school to gain a physical edge, then invited last summer to the Elite 11 quarterback camp in Southern California. “This is just a sign of things to come, in terms of where we're going with the high school athlete thing," said Allen Wallace, publisher of SuperPrep magazine. “These kids are receiving such incredible mentoring at the early stags of their development. By the time a lot of these kids are seniors, they've already topped out in terms of how much they can develop themselves in high school." Unfortunately, here you also have a high school kid caught between two adult egos. Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com. Comments? To e-mail Fish, click here.
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