In his junior season Makai Burris is unquestionably the leader at Faith Christian. And this isn’t the first year.

“He has been a team captain since his freshman year which is not a normal thing,” said Faith Christian Head Football Coach Andre Dobson. “But that just kind of shows his leadership qualities and what the rest of his teammates and upper classmen thought of him from day one.”

Captain for going on three years now, Makai isn’t necessarily a vocal leader. But his work ethic and obvious skills make him a standout.

Just one-third the way through the 2017 season, Makai already has over 500 all-purpose yards and 9 touchdowns to his name, including an impressive 82-yard run against Master’s Academy in week three.

Makai, no surprise, credits that run to the entire team.

“First of all I would just like to say that the blocking was pretty good overall and everybody was just doing their job,” said Burris. “Football doesn’t work without 11 people so we were just all working and all doing our task.”

It’s that kind of attitude that Faith Christian is all about. Coach Dobson believes in the team mentality so strongly that during practice everyone wears the number 11.

“They all know their role within the team and we’ve been preaching a team spirit from the beginning when we started the program 5 years ago.”

The mentality is paying off.  The team may be small with only 22 players on the roster, but with Makai leading the way, anything is possible.

“We expected a lot of good things even though we had a little amount of guys,” said Burris. “We just know we have heart and we have guys that really love to play the game of football.”

Makai included.