Never Defeated

I'm thinking about writing a book about our two seasons from 2012 and 2013.  In 2012 our football team went 0-9 and in 2013 our team went 12-1 and finished the regular season undefeated.  Here is a "hackers" attempt at the start of a book about those seasons and what it took to turn around our program.  Any feedback would be great!

Never Defeated:

The 2013 Rock-a-Chaws were 8-0 going into our 9^th game of the season and players and coaches alike could feel the excitement of what was about to happen that October night.  We were playing Moss Point High School at home that night and if we were victorious, life would have brought our football family full circle from exactly one year ago.  In 2012, we finished the season 0-9.  Although we had 10 regular season games, one of our games that year had been cancelled because of a hurricane.  Ironically enough, not to take anything away from Pass Christian who would have been our opponent that night, that was the one game that we had the best chance of winning in 2012.  If we won our game against Moss Point, the turnaround would be complete and we could all breathe a sigh of relief.  Winning that game would mean that we had gone from 0-9 in one year to 9-0 the next, a feat that had never been accomplished in the State of Mississippi and one that only a handful of teams had ever accomplished in high school football history.  The game was fairly uneventful but was indicative of the kinds of games we prided ourselves upon winning throughout the 2013 season. 

If you would have lined up the players from Moss Point and the players from St. Stanislaus and asked 10 casual football observers to pick who they think would win the game, I would venture to say that at least 9, if not all 10 of them, would have picked Moss Point.  We only dressed 41 players.  Moss Point dressed over 60.  They were, man for man, bigger than we were (although we had a few big linemen), and they were most certainly more athletic than us.  Had we been competing in a track meet or a football combine, we most certainly would have been humiliated.  Truth be told, you could have done this with almost all of our opponents in 2013 and had a similar result.  Every week, as we watched pre-game warm ups, the coaches and I would look across the field and see a team that had bigger and more athletic players than we did.  We had a few guys that would pass the “look test,” but we also had a few players that were considerable contributors for us that looked more like Biology majors than football players. 

The young men of the SSC football team were not “casual observers” however.  These young men had been meticulously trained to perform their duties and, although the other teams we played may have “looked” better than we did, our kids were trained for the rigors of high school football better than most of the teams in the state.  Partially because of our coaching staff’s obsession with preparation and driven partly from the sting of an 0-9 season, our coaches left no stone unturned when it came to preparing the 2013 football team.  We were 8-0 at this point for a myriad of different reasons, but the simplest of them was just sheer hard work.  The coaches worked diligently through the off-season to train our kids physically, psychologically, and spiritually.  All three of those areas worked together to produce the team that was on the field that night.

Senior RB Corbin Patton ran for 101 yards against Moss Point

Senior Captains: #44 LB Joe Guillot, #28 SS Johnny Longo, #14 QB Tyler Allen, #16 WR Brennen Bradley

Moss Point and Stanislaus captains shake hands before the game

The SSC Defense was relentless all year

Jr. Corner Evan Lundgren makes a leaping interception against Moss Point

Jr WR Chase Rhodes dives for the pylon and scores a touchdown while Sr WR Chase Zimmerman gets physical with a MP defender

SSC Defensive Coordinator and Strength Coach Deuce Harrison stressed the importance of proper tackling for two straight years.  #8 Austin Miller performs a textbook tackle on kick off coverage.

LG and C Alex Myrick and Field Nicaud protect against the big MP Defensive Line as Sr QB Tyler Allen drops back to pass

Sr WR Brennen Bradley hauls in a vertical ball over two MP defenders

During the game, all of these things became radiantly apparent; we hadn't lost a game yet that year because our team was as prepared as they possibly could be.  The Rocks physically dominated the entire football game from start to finish.  Our players were in considerably better shape and executed their assignments with surgical precision.  The game was over before it even really got started.  We were ahead 35-6 at halftime and scored just 6 points in the 3^rd and 4^th quarters after we pulled our starters.  SSC would go on to win the game 41-21.  Our quarterback Tyler Allen was extremely efficient completing 18 of 23 passes for 292 yards and 5 touchdown passes.  We also ran the ball for 166 yards behind one the most physically dominant offensive lines in recent school memory.  Our defense in 2012 had given up a massive 52.2 points per game.  At this point in the season in 2013, our defense was averaging giving up 19 points per game.  The defense was on full display this Friday night.  The Rock-a-Chaw defense totaled 15 tackles for a loss, 3 sacks, and 2 interceptions.  Before the backups went in, the Rock-a-Chaw defense had surrendered only 6 points.  When the regular season was over, the Rocks defense was statistically one of the best in Mississippi. 

After the game I spoke to our team about how important it was for us to remember that just one year ago we were in almost this exact same spot and talking about collecting equipment and reviewing off-season schedules and hadn't a single win to show for all our hard work.  As usual, I reminded them of their commitment to our strict no substance policy.  The “hydration nation,” as it came to be known among the players, was something that had become critical to our success that year.  Our seniors, along with the rest of the team, had made a serious commitment to trade in their beer cans for water bottles at the parties that happened all along the beach each Friday and Saturday night.  By the time our team was 9-0, the momentum from the hydration nation was strong and tough to resist.  Even kids who didn't play a sport all year were walking around the school with water bottles in their bags and filling them up at the water fountains in between classes.  I assume it had become the “cool” thing to do.  The turnaround was real.  As I walked off the field to greet my wife, parents, and friends, I was reminded of a bible verse that had inspired me to continue in this mission exactly one year ago:  Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

The 2012 Season Mercifully Comes to a Close:

I sat in my office the week after our last football game thankfully ended our season in 2012 at St. Stanislaus and wondered what I had done to deserve such a miserable year.  The coaches and players had worked harder than we had ever worked before that off-season and continued the grind throughout the season.  Unfortunately, our season didn't end up like we had hoped.  We finished the 2012 season 0-9 and suffered some of the most disastrous losses I had experienced in 9 years of coaching, including an 82-80 defeat to regional foe Poplarville that would make national headlines.  The dim lights in my office provided a perfect place for me to slouch back in my chair, scratch my head, and sulk quietly by myself.  I never once allowed anyone to see me struggle in public.  I put on the best face I could for our team each week and genuinely believed we had a chance to win every game we played.  Now that the season was over, I could sit in the 1970’s green chair in my office and feel sorry for myself with no one else around to see it.  It was cathartic.  At this point, I was looking for direction from anyone and anything I could find.  I ran across a bible verse that day, and although I am not a bible quoting scripture hound, I do follow Christ and I do believe in his teachings.  I am a Catholic so that probably explains why I can’t give you chapter and verse of all my favorite quotations.  This also wasn't the last time I would find inspiration through scripture leading into the 2013 season.  But this verse read, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” Galatians 6:9 (I had to google it).  I copied and pasted that verse into a word document and printed it off in the biggest font that would fit on one page.  I taped it to my door so that every time I had to come out of that office I was forced to read it. 

I knew that I had been “doing good” in football terms.  I was certain that what I was teaching our boys and what our coaching staff was doing to prepare them was the right thing.  I had definitely “become weary” however.  The long hours of the previous off-season and the even longer hours of the accompanying regular season had all but taken the fire out of my spirit.  And truth be told, I've always been an extremely enthusiastic and fiery young football coach.  The part of the scripture that I didn't want to accept was “at the proper time.”  I wanted to reap my harvest now, but it was not in God’s plans.  He had bigger plans for our 2013 football team;  I just didn't know them.  And, little did I know, but the struggle from the 2012 season was only just beginning.  The fallout from that abysmal season had not begun to take place although the writing was on the wall everywhere around me.  Parents, players, alumni, former coaches, and even some of our super supportive administration began to wonder what was going on with our football program.