STARKVILLE — The Heritage Academy and Starkville Academy football programs are working their way back to 2005.
Nearly six years ago, the Volunteers defeated the Patriots 31-7 for the Mississippi Private School Association Class AAA, Division II title.
Unfortunately, both schools haven”t had a winning season since 2005. Both schools also are on their third head coach since Jack French and Herbert Davis squared off in Clinton.
But this season there is a degree of optimism and self confidence surrounding each program that hasn”t been seen in a number of years.
Starkville Academy can point to second-year coach Jeff Terrill and a season-opening 38-3 victory against St. Andrews last week as evidence it is poised to take the next step.
Heritage Academy is coming off a thrilling 37-36 victory against Lamar School in which Cade Lott caught a touchdown pass from Brandon Bell in the waning moments to help erase a 21-point halftime deficit.
Only one team, though, will get a chance to keep its momentum once the annual rivalry game kicks off at 7 tonight in Columbus.
Terrill, the former head coach at Itawamba Community College, won three games in his first season last year. This season, the addition of former West Point and Columbus High football coach Bubba Davis has given the Volunteers an added lift in the weight room. The result is a team that is even more confident and believes in itself.
“We think the attitude has changed tremendously,” Terrill said. “It would be hard to put a figure on it. But I think losing was accepted and that it was the fault of all. We have just tried to teach these young men and give them some confidence and let them know somebody believed in them and that they could win.
“I think that has been the biggest thing. They have seen coach (Bubba) Davis and the other coaches come in and tell them, ”If you will work and put in the time, effort, and determination you can win, and you will win. They”re starting to believe that themselves.”
Terrill joked he doesn”t know any better than to set a standard and to challenge players. But he said a key has been the players” willingness to let the coaches push them to realize their potential.
Running back Colby Runnels, who was at Starkville Academy in seventh and eighth grade before transferring to Starkville High, is back at the school. He played a key role in the Volunteers” win last week, and said the Volunteers have “restored the pride” and are working to do more this year.
“We knew we were going to come out and play hard and come out and win,” Runnels said. “We”re going to play hard, but playing hard and coming out with a loss isn”t what we want. We want to win, and that”s about the next step we”re trying to take.”
Runnels always thought Starkville Academy has a tremendous amount of talent and potential, but he saw a mentality he called the “Starkville Academy attitude” that made the players think they weren”t as good as other teams and they weren”t going to win.
Starkville Academy took the first step toward starting fresh last season when it beat Winston Academy to snap a 20-game losing skid. Runnels said the Volunteers have pushed forward thanks to an offseason in the weight room that has made everyone stronger. He said the positive reinforcement from Terrill, Davis, and the other coaches has erased negativity and created a hunger on the team.
“We”re definitely privileged to have those two coaches on the staff here at Starkville Academy,” Runnels said. “They don”t let us settle for the mediocrity some people would let us settle for. Even after we just had this big win, they”re still telling us what we did wrong and what we need to improve on. They set that mind-set of we have to get better and we”re not to the point of where we could be.”
Like Terrill, Butler knows his team is in the middle of a process of building a winner. Butler, who graduated from Starkville Academy and coached there from 1998-2004, was offensive line coach under former head coach Lee Davis. He also was defensive coordinator at Heritage Academy on the 2005 team.
Butler said the Patriots are moving away from a “Here we go again” mind-set that prevented them from handling adversity. Last week was a perfect example, as Heritage Academy rallied from a 21-0 halftime deficit by staying calm and having confidence in its game plan.
“In the first half, we got down and a lot of people would have counted us out,” senior Mark Adams said. “But this team this year we know how to fight back. We have a lot of leaders. We had people step up to help us get back into that game. We never quit. You know now if we get down it”s not over.”
Butler and the coaches stuck with a simple message that the first half belonged to Lamar School and the second half would belong to Heritage Academy. He said penalties and fumbled snaps did the Patriots in and it was up to the players to get it done.
“Not that they had to have a fire lit up under them, I think they lit themselves,” Butler said. “We just reassured them the game wasn”t over and we were OK. That”s the reason we play two halves.”
Butler and Terrill know one game doesn”t make a season, but they know something even better could start after two victories. Now that each team has had a taste of success, don”t count on either one making things easy for the other tonight.
“My old coach used to tell us it is short road from the penthouse to the outhouse,” Butler said. “(Last week) is over with. It was great. I commend the boys on the heart and the guts they showed, but we can”t live with the thought, ”Oh, man, what about the Lamar game?” We have to get our mind back on this week”s business and take care of it again. Starkville has a good team coming in here.
“You can watch them on film and tell they are a different team than what they have been in the past few years. You can tell their kids believe. They are playing hard.
“I feel we are getting back to a rival game where you have two teams that are fighting for the playoffs. Anytime you have two teams this close together and both of them are fighting to get into the playoffs, it makes a rivalry even more intense.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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