Week 6 Team of the Week: Cross Keys Indians

The Cross Keys Indians have been playing football since 1958, but the Dekalb County school has only four winning seasons in that span, and head coach John Bowen said there’s a stigma attached to his Indians football team.

But now, in his second stint coaching Cross Keys, Bowen said this year’s team is different.

Cross Keys only has 24 players on the roster, most of them Hispanic with little past exposure to American football. The Indians were buying in to Bowen’s voluntary offseason weight training program in hopes of getting stronger this season, but then COVID-19 hit and Dekalb County instituted strict protocols that made it hard to continue in the weight program.

So instead, the Indians began a strict regimen of military-style calisthenics, which appears to have paid off.

Cross Keys beat Notre Dame Academy, 28-7, on Friday, breaking a lengthy losing streak that dated back to 2016.

The Indians plays a shortened non-region schedule, and while they only have three games left, they are riding high after their hard work resulted in a win.