LITTLE ROCK — After spending the last week praying for Zack Towers, Star City will be playing for the senior linebacker tonight when the Bulldogs host Heber Springs in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
Towers remained in critical condition early Thursday night at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, a week after leaving Star City’s regular-season finale against Crossett with a head injury.
But several posts earlier Thursday and Wednesday on the Twitter page of the player’s best friend, Pine Bluff junior place-kicker Austin McGehee, indicated Towers is showing slight improvement.
McGehee played for Star City in 2010 and 2011 before transferring to Pine Bluff this summer.
“Zack is getting stronger and stronger,” McGehee tweeted before leaving to visit Towers on Thursday night.
“Good News!! One of Zack’s eyes [has] reacted to light. We will take down this mountain one pebble at a time,” McGehee wrote Wednesday night.
Bulldogs Coach Blair Brown said Tuesday afternoon that he has been advised by school administration not to make specific comments about Towers’ condition but could speak in generalities.
Brown said he had been receiving positive reports daily from Towers’ family since the player was injured and underwent brain surgery Thursday night at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff.
Towers was transferred to Children’s on Sunday.
Brown said among his many challenges this week has been trying to strike a balance between practice and prayer.
“It’s almost embarrassing to say anything because compared to what his family is going through, our things are trivial,” said Brown, Star City’s coach since 2007. “We have much empathy for them, but we’re also working to stay on task. That’s been the most unique aspect of it. There’s not like a manual for something like this.”
Brown said he’s been particularly struck by the outpouring of support for Towers, whose older brother, Ty, was a star quarterback on Star City’s 2010 team that reached the semifinals of the Class 4A playoffs.
Ty Towers, now a sophomore at Ouachita Baptist, has continued to provide updates on his brother’s condition through Twitter, which has been overrun with “Pray-ForZack” hash tags.
Brown said Star City players, along with the four other 8-4A playoff teams — Warren, Hamburg, Monticello and Crossett — will wear helmet stickers with Zack Towers’ jersey number (16) tonight.
“That’s a token, but it’s more than a token,” Brown said. “It’s acknowledging that we are in this boat together and there’s some of the greatest men in Arkansas in this profession. They’re proving it.”
Brown said he’s also received hundreds of e-mails and text messages since Towers was injured.
The volume has been so overwhelming, Brown said, that he’s had to charge his cell phone each day at lunch.
“It’s just been, ‘How are things going? How are you doing?’ ” Brown said. “That’s been really nice.”
Brown said he isn’t sure how his team will respond tonight, adding the situation surrounding the game is “unique.”
But he said he believes the atmosphere around the Lincoln County town of 2,500 will charged with emotion.
“We’ve got some things planned before the game with both teams,” Brown said. “Nothing dramatic, but just a little moment. I think it will be powerful.”
Star City (8-2) earned 8-2A’s No. 2 playoff seed with its 33-29 victory over Crossett last Thursday. The Bulldogs have won five consecutive games since opening 8-4A play 0-2.
Heber Springs (7-3) is the No. 3 seed from the 2-4A.
Sports, Pages 19 on 11/09/2012