With a lot of practice and teamwork the Grizzlies were able to put together their best season ever but it came to an end, Tuesday, Oct. 23 with a 34-28 loss to Farragut in the Inter-City playoffs.
Despite the loss, Payton finished the season with a 7-2 record and more importantly, the program's first conference championship.
"The seniors this year were freshman when I took the program over and they bought into the program," Billings said. "They did the little things in the offseason. They did everything that we asked of them and the end result was it showed.
"In the past football has kind of been the laughing stock of the school. All the sports have excelled, except for football. But this senior group has built a winning tradition."
The loss was extremely hard on the players.
"We worked year round for four years and that's what it took to get where we are now," said Grizzlies' senior quarterback LeRoy Gordon. "It feels good; It's just hard to see it end."
Payton's only bright spot in the first half against Farragut was a kickoff returned for a touchdown by Gordon. The Grizzlies trailed 22-6 at halftime but they were determined to make a game of it.
"That's Payton football," Billings said. "It's like Walter Payton 'We never die easy'."
Tony Gerhart's 10-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion with 8:42 to play in the third quarter brought the Grizzlies within 22-14. Farragut answered with a long scoring drive for a 28-14 advantage with just 3:37 remaining in the third quarter.
Payton kept on fighting and cut the lead to 28-20 on a four-yard keeper by Gordon with 2:02 left in the fourth quarter.
The Grizzlies attempted an onside kick and didn't recover. Things got even worse when Farragut added another touchdown with 1:36 to play for a 34-20 advantage.
But like Billings said before, Payton wasn't going to die easy.
Floyd Stewart took a squib kick 58 yards for a touchdown and Gerhart's two-point conversion run cut the lead to 34-28. But the Grizzlies weren't able to recover the onside and their comeback fell short.
Giving up was never an option for this Grizzlies team.
"That's not what we were taught," said Gerhart, a senior. "You always play as hard as you can."
While Payton would have loved to brig home an Inter-City championship, they have nothing to be ashamed of after a stellar season.
"Last year we didn't win a real game and this year we came out and went undefeated in conference and competed with (Big Shoulders conference champion Foreman)," Gerhart said. "We did pretty good. It's just hard to see it end."
Billings has certainly had an uphill battle trying to build a program at Payton.
"We only have 800 students to draw from and most of them are girls," he said. "But we roll with what we have. I come from a small town in Upper Michigan and I'm used to having 18-20 kids on the team."
In addition to Gordon and Gerhart, the Grizzlies will lose nine other seniors to graduation including: Mike Adelphia, Christian Covyeau, Marc Del Valle, Neil Dikman-Malonis, Chris Querfurth, Brian Reed, Stewart, Joshua Williams and Clark Zachocki.
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