Roderick Farmer stood in front of 30 Heritage High School football players Wednesday afternoon and quoted all four stanzas from William Ernest Henley’s famous poem, “Invictus.”
The players, clad in the trademark orange and navy Pioneer uniforms, were tired and sweaty. They had just finished a grueling three-hour workout in early morning heat at the Lynchburg Fire Department’s Training Center, located off Airport Road.
Still, every eye fixed on Farmer, a former Heritage football and basketball player who currently is one of 12 firefighter recruits in the city.