The 2019 high school football season was the best overall we’ve had from a local standpoint in my 27 years covering the sport for this newspaper.
None of the seven area teams won state championships — continuing a nine-year trend — but it was the best season across the board for our teams.
I really thought this might finally be the year for Greenwood to claim its first state crown, but the Bulldogs’ undefeated season again ended one victory shy of the big game. GHS carried a 13-0 mark into the North 4A title game, but Corinth was definitely the better team when the two squads squared off in late November.
But much like the three previous chances for the Bulldogs in the North 4A finals, they just couldn’t make enough plays when it mattered the most. GHS never trailed in its first 13 games and then never led in its final.
It was a brutal ending to an otherwise awesome campaign in 2019.
Corinth ran for more than 400 yards behind its Wing-T attack against a Dog defense that came in allowing under eight points a contest. The Warriors went on to roll Poplarville in the state title contest, 55-21. To make things even more painful for Bulldog fans is the fact that all four teams that beat their squad in the North 4A finals went on to claim rings.
But 10th-year GHS coach Clinton Gatewood remains confident things will change soon. He heads back to the drawing board this offseason and is determined to get his team over the hump.
Much like Greenwood, Pillow had the team to make a serious run at another state crown, but the Mustangs’ couldn’t handle a loaded Heritage Academy team that beat Tripp McCarty’s bunch twice — 26-13 in the regular season and then 47-14 to reach the state title game.
The Patriots capped off a perfect season with a 55-10 thumping of Starkville in the state championship.
McCarty said it was obviously a sad ending to an otherwise great season. All three losses in 2019 were to state championship teams that went undefeated in Heritage and Greenville St. Joseph, the Class 3A champion.
“It just really hurt when it all suddenly ended for this team and our great senior class. You hate the most for those seniors,” McCarty said. “This is a special team that was really close.”
To sum up how special this senior group is, McCarty points to an instance that occurred just moments after the Mustangs’ season-ending loss. The PA coach saw Wade Smith, a three-year starter and stalwart on the offensive line, consoling a junior high manager — even tough it was the absolute end of his football career.
But anyone who knows this young man probably isn’t surprised. He’s just a true leader.
The Mustangs lose a ton of talent from a big senior class, but the cupboard won’t be bare for 2020. The Mustang offense will certainly have a different look, but there is still plenty of reason for optimism.
It was a blast watching PA senior quarterback Shane Houston Stephens’ record-breaking season. It’s a real shame that some smaller Division I programs are going missing out on a strong-armed, athletic signal caller. At this point, Stephens would like to receive a “prefered” walk-on invite at Ole Miss. All is looking for a chance to prove himself.
Let’s see what happens in Oxford once Lance Kiffin gets his staff complete, but I am rooting for the kid.
Amanda Elzy and Leflore County each had playoff wins, while the Panthers won their region.
But we can’t put the bow on the end of the season without mentioning Bo Milton at Carroll Academy. His team went 10-3 and just missed out on the upset of the season when the Rebels couldn’t hold a late lead, falling 20-18 to the uber talented Fighting Irish.
There were a lot of good coaching jobs done this year by all our area coaches. You can find out who we think did the best job soon, when the newspaper’s All-Commonwealth team is released.
I was talking to a local coach this week about how hard it would be to make this team because of all the talent in the area, and he said: “No doubt, you will have a lot of dudes on that team.”
Indeed. You just have to wait two more weeks to find out.
