SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week Preview: Battle at Hickman
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Two Columbia schools go toe-to-toe in week four of the high school football season.
The Spartans and Kewpies are our SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week. You can watch the game live over the air channel 17.3 on KZOU. Here is a look at other local listings:
- DirecTV - Channel 18
- Dish Network - Channel 32
- Mediacom - Channel 12 & 709
- Centurylink - Channel 12
- Spectrum - Channel 183
Hickman and Battle both look for a return to glory in 2026, but are at very different stages of the process.
The Spartans are in their second rebuilding year under head coach Shawn Gaines. They've shown flashes in the early parts of the season, but are still looking to turn that into the norm.
"The first three weeks, the scoreboard has been kind of rough, but we saw some flashes," Gaines said. "Offensively we get in the red zone, we're just not finishing the job. Defensively, whenever we gave teams a long field to defend, those guys struggled."
Heading into this week, Gaines and the Spartans have been focused on preparing for those situations and being able to take advantage of the good moments they have.
"Offense is very much an orchestra. We have all these different pieces that when working together, everything is great," Gaines said."But when one piece is off or one piece isn't doing what they need to do or, we make a little mistake here, or little mistake there, everything ends up being off for us."
Hickman enters this match coming off of a dog fight against Capital City. The Kewps escaped by just a single point, and have slowed on offense after a dominant first showing.
"You know, after scoring, 54 in week one, we go to 13, and we go to 15, I feel like we've been struggling a little bit," Hickman coach Justin Conyers said. "We need to build that confidence back in ourselves offensively. We have the weapons, I have to do a better job of calling plays to let those guys just go play football."
At the center of that, Kewpies quarterback Brendun Bursey is hoping to bring some juice with both his arm and his legs.
"The big thing is you got to have the confidence in your quarterback," Conyers said. "Your quarterback has to have confidence in himself. When those things are happening, you see us really execute at a much higher level and you see much more confidence in us as a whole entire football team."
While there is an extensive history between the teams, there is also plenty between the coaches. Gaines played under Conyers when he was in high school, and even though this won't be the first time they face off, it's still a unique experience for Battle's head man.
"Just seeing him and and knowing, you know, the history that we have is, is is kind of special and pretty unique in his own right. So, I mean, I try not to focus on it as much, but, it is, it's pretty cool," Gaines said.
Hickman will host Battle at Adkins Stadium on Friday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m.
