MACON — Jeffery Simmons could sense the frustration in Tyrone Shorter’s voice and in his body language.
Simmons couldn’t help see it and feel it because the Noxubee County High School football team’s losing was affecting him, too.
Losing doesn’t come easily in Macon — let alone a four-game slide that included a loss to rival West Point and an overtime defeat at Class 3A Kemper County — so Shorter had to do something about it. Instead of trying to tackle the burden of ending the streak himself, Shorter opted to lean on Simmons and other members of his senior class. The message was simple: Find a way to help the Tigers get past the differences that were holding them back and get things back on track.
The message was received and executed.
“Just him talking touched me because it was our last year and he said we were going to let everything go down the drain,” Simmons said. “We just brought it back together. Everybody agreed and said we were better than this and came back together as a team.”
Shorter’s decision one day before Noxubee County opened Class 4A, Region 4 play against Kosciusko proved to be a turning point. A 22-12 victory set the Tigers on a path that saw them win their final 10 games of the season. Noxubee County capped that journey Dec. 5 with a 44-23 victory against St. Stanislaus in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A State title game at Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The championship helped Noxubee County (12-4) become the first team in school history to win back-to-back state titles. It also helped the Tigers secure their third title in four years, and fourth championship overall.
For Simmons, one of the state’s most dominant players, it was fitting that Shorter intervened in just the right way and at the right time to get everyone back on their title path.
“The leaders on the team, especially me, were able to trust him to get everything back together,” Simmons said when asked why Shorter’s decision to have the seniors talk to their teammates worked so well. “I know I texted him that night and we talked about everything. I felt like if he just let us do it instead of going on and on and on about it, I felt like everything would be all right. I know he trusted me to do that.”
For his efforts, Shorter is The Dispatch’s Large Schools co-Coach of the Year. He is sharing the honor with Columbus High coach Randal Montgomery.
Simmons said he and the seniors didn’t ask Shorter to talk to the rest of the season. Prior to the start of the season, Shorter told the Tigers they didn’t need his permission to have a team meeting, so Simmons called some of his classmates in Wednesday after the team was sent home from practice and decided everything had to change.
Simmons said the way Shorter handled the situation wasn’t any different than how he acted as an assistant coach for then-head coach M.C. Miller or how he had led the team in his time as head coach. He said Shorter’s consistency made it easier for him and for his teammates to trust their coach and know the Tigers were going to snap out of it.
“What happened shouldn’t have happened,” Simmons said. “I knew it kind of ticked him off. I knew how he was going to react to it. The stuff he said, we already knew how he was going to react. He is the same person I have known for all of these years.”
Shorter relied on his 18 years of experience to work through his frustrations. He admitted several times the Tigers weren’t playing “Noxubee County football” following victories against Class 6A Starkville and Columbus to open the season. He said he used to be a coach who “got down and got into kids’ faces,” but he has come to realize he works better when talks to players and “gets into their heads.” He never imagined what started as a run toward history would include so many pitfalls and so much adversity to get to Oxford and win another gold ball.
“It has been a season that was my hardest season as a coach trying to keep this team together,” Shorter said. “There were a lot of outside distractions trying to come into this field house. There was a lot of adversity we had to go through with the injuries and stuff. A lot of kids were frustrated. Then when you start losing, you have to deal with fans. We had to do a good job as coaches to keep it together.”
Shorter said he turned to his faith to help him stay positive and to make the right decisions. He said there were times a wrong move could have torn everything down, which is what he wanted to avoid, especially with a team he knew had so much promise. Shorter said the Tigers’ potential motivated him because he didn’t want to see the 2015 squad become just like past teams that had so much ability and fell short.
“I knew we had a good football team, and I knew I couldn’t mess it up,” Shorter said. “It was my job to keep it together.”
Shorter credited his coaching staff for providing great support throughout the season. He said he wasn’t going to change his ways to find a quick fix to correct the team’s issues. He also didn’t try to stop several players who quit the football team during its losing streak prior to the start of region play. As hard as it was to overcome the injuries and as frustrating as it was at times, Shorter said he never doubted his players’ potential and remained focused on the goal of winning back-to-back state titles. In the end, Shorter’s ability to trust his seniors and his players played a key role in Noxubee County’s run to history.
“If you start letting kids get away with this and that, it will come back and bite you,” Shorter said. “I wasn’t going to change. The kids were going to have to change because I only know how to do it one way.
“I just believe in doing it the right way, in hard work, discipline, and not letting kids get away with stuff. I believe every team’s identity is reflected on their head coach. If you have a head coach who allows this guy to get away with this and this guy to get away with that, you’re going to be selfish, or your team is going to fall apart.
“The month of September was the longest month I have ever seen. It seemed like we couldn’t throw a pea in the ocean on offense. It seemed like we couldn’t get the breaks defensively. It seemed like we were playing terrible on special teams. But I kept on saying, ‘It is going to get better. It is going to get better.’ ”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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