Players’ One-in-a-Million Meeting After Game

CENTRAL — It was a once-in-a-million coincidence, and it happened last Friday night at Wildcat Stadium in Central.

The Central Wildcats were playing the Ruston Bearcats in the state 5A Regional Championships.  It would indeed be a game to remember.

Central and Ruston are 223 miles apart with a driving time of 4 hours 23 minutes.  They have so little connection with one another that they could just as easily be in different states.

But after the conclusion of last Friday night’s playoff game, two young men who are cousins met and shook hands for the first time in their lives — Central junior offensive lineman Connor Raiford and Ruston’s Kristian Scroggins.

Most ironically, both of the players wear No. 65 for their respective teams.

Connor Raiford is the son of Doug and Charise Raiford of Central.  Charise’s mother is a cousin to Kristian Scroggins’ grandfather.

Kristian Scroggins’ father is Tommy Scroggins.  Tommy is, of course, also Charise Raiford’s cousin.  Charise and Tommy had met before but had never met any of the other’s children.

Doug Raiford was raised in Central and played football for Central High.  Charise was raised on Flannery.  She is a supervisor at Comite Christian Academy.

The story almost had another unexpected twist.  The two boys have another cousin, Zachary Scroggins, who plays for Parkway.  Parkway lost in overtime Friday.  Had it won, it would be playing Ruston this week.

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This story began with a call from Charise Raiford to the Central City News last week.  She told the amazing story of the coincidence and asked if we could get a photo of the boys after the game.  I told her it would be difficult, because the boys want to be with their teammates and have to get on the bus.

But, after the game, I was able to grab a reluctant Connor and pull him into the middle of the Ruston team as it was celebrating.  We located Kristian.  They met, smiled at the amazing moment, and then ran back to their teams.

Fortunately, I managed to get the photograph.

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News