JACKSON — Louisville and football go hand in hand.
When pads begin to pop out on Ivy Avenue, all attention turns to the Louisville High School Wildcats.
That’s the case this week as Louisville continues preparations for its game against Hazlehurst at 11 a.m. Saturday for the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A State Championship at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. A win would help Louisville claim its eighth state title, which is second in the state only to South Panola (10).
While Louisville quarterback Wyatt Roberts and linebacker Jeremy Sangster were born nearly a dozen years after Louisville won its first state title in 1985, they are fully aware of the importance of winning another championship.
“That is what the whole community is about,” Roberts said. “Everybody talks about Friday night football. If you win you are a hero. If you lose, nobody really wants to talk to you. They remember the mistakes, but that’s what it’s all about.”
What will it be like if the Wildcats roll back into Louisville on Saturday night with the school’s eighth golden football?
“Woo Wee. There aren’t any words to explain it,” said Sangster, a big smile spreading across his face. “Everybody is counting on us. Everybody wants us to win it, and if we do win it — oh my gosh!”
Seven times a Louisville High football team has played in a state championship game since the playoffs began in 1981, and seven times the Wildcats have left with the title.
“We have heard about that a bunch,” Roberts said. “It is not necessarily pressure, it’s more of a motivational thing. The fact that Louisville has come here and never been beaten is a great inspiration, and gives you a little more confidence in knowing we have been here as a school and come out with a victory.”
But this team has a chance to do something none of those title teams before it accomplished: It could end the season undefeated.
“At the beginning of the season, we said our team will go undefeated and win state,” Sangster said. “But you have to take it one day at a time and a game at a time. We’ve done that.”
Roberts said the team talked Sunday about completing an undefeated season.
“A 16-0 season and a state championship — you can’t beat it,” Roberts said. “To see that record and to set that milestone would be a great mark for this team and our school.”
While the 2013 Wildcats have a chance to become the school’s first football team to post an undefeated season in the playoff era, one other team has run the table since full integration in 1970.
The 1971 team — led by such Louisville High School legends as Earl Carter, Tim Ellis, and Ray Hisaw — beat Ackerman 29-0 for the Choctaw Conference Championship and finished 11-0. That team ended the season ranked No. 3 in the state by The Associated Press.
“I think we could have beaten any of them (ranked ahead of us) if they had given us the chance,” Hisaw said when asked about that season earlier this year.
There is something else a victory Saturday would give Louisville. The Wildcats would be the only team to win at least one state championship in each decade of the playoff era. LHS has won titles in 1985, 1986, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2007, and 2008. The first five were 4A championships. The last two have been in Class 3A.
“It would mean a lot to the community,” Louisville coach M.C. Miller said of winning a title in every decade. “The Louisville fans expect a lot. I have lived in Louisville all of my life, and I know there is a tradition, and all I wanted to do was to help keep it going.
“Louisville has always been known for football. We are one of the elite schools in the state because of football.”
Miller says he enjoys hearing about the school’s football history because he knows it helps the Wildcats continue to be title contenders.
“It helps with the kids on the football field. It really does,” he said. “The fans are behind you and they will get on the kids to try and make them do right. Everybody here pulls together on Friday nights. We all want the same thing.”
That’s why everyone will come together Saturday to help the Wildcats win the Class 3A State Championship trophy.
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