MACON — Tyrone Shorter had to run players away from the Noxubee County High School field house in the summer.
That’s a good sign for a coach who suffered key graduation losses from a group that helped the program win its first back-to-back state championships.
And while the 2016 Tigers will lack the big-name talents of players like Jeffery Simmons, Qendarrion Barnett, Timorrius Conner, Ladaveon Smith, and Deveon Ball, among others, Shorter believes his latest bunch has the mentality and potential needed to remain a fixture in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A State title picture.
“They believe they can do it again. They are not listening to all of the talk,” Shorter said. “They just have the attitude we are going to outwork people and do this. One of the seniors (Kalmorris Robinson) said the other day, ‘Coach, can you believe they picked Louisville over us?’ I told him, ‘Yeah.’ I tried to explain to them why the other day. They feel they are being disrespected now. I told them when you have a group of seniors like we had last year, they are looking at all of that. Kalmorris was like, ‘They don’t play the game on paper. The game is played on the field.’ I said, ‘That is the attitude I need you to have.’ ”
Noxubee County will get its first chance to showcase that mind-set at 11 a.m. Saturday when it takes on Grenada on the second day of the New Hope Jamboree at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium.
Morton will take on New Hope at 7 tonight in the first game of the two-day, seven-game event. The rest o the second for Saturday is: Kemper County vs. Amory, 9 a.m.; Choctaw County vs. Northeast Jones, 1 p.m.; Louisville vs. Shannon, 3 p.m.; West Point vs. Callaway, 5 p.m.; and Columbus vs. Meridian, 7 p.m.
Noxubee County closed the 2015 season on a 10-game winning streak to win its second-consecutive Class 4A crown, and third championship in four seasons. Shorter said this year’s Tigers will be different in that he doesn’t have a lot of vocal leaders. He said he has plenty of vocal leaders among his younger group and that he is encouraging his older players to talk more.
That doesn’t mean the Tigers won’t be ready.
“This group of seniors doesn’t talk much, but they know what needs to be done,” Shorter said. “They are working their tails off and everybody is following in their footsteps.”
Shorter also can use last season as a valuable teaching tool. The Tigers went through a four-game losing streak in September that left many scratching their heads and wondering what was happening to the reigning Class 4A State champions. Noxubee County had to work through injuries and issues inside the team before it worked everything out. A victory against St. Stanislaus at Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium secured another title.
This season, Shorter doesn’t intend to use youth as an excuse.
“This team feels like they have big shoes to fill, which they do,” Shorter said. “I think they are putting that pressure on themselves, and I kind of like that because they are working their butts off.
“I am excited about this team. I know we are not the favorite. A lot of people think we have lost a lot and this might be the year to get us. … But I like this team. We are going to see what happens.”
Like last season, Noxubee County won’t have any breathers. A non-conference schedule that includes games against Starkville, Columbus, Forest, Meridian, West Point, and Kemper County will provide a strenuous test prior to Class 4A, Region 4 play.
Senior defensive back Jataquist Sherrod said the Tigers will go through their ups and downs on both sides of the ball as new players learn the system and their roles. He said the coaches have urged him to be a leader in the secondary and to help make defensive calls. He said his voice is getting louder, but he said he won’t use it to create any hype about the 2016 team. Sherrod said the Tigers will do their talking on the field.
“We are going to go out with that enthusiasm that we want to be better than last year’s team,” Sherrod said. “That is all we hear — Jeffery Simmons, Barnett, and Ball. We are playing to an extent that we want to hear our names called like that when we leave here.”
Senior offensive lineman Antonio Roby has heard the talk from the naysayers, too. He said the Tigers are confident but not cocky. The 6-foot-4, 290-pounder hopes to emerge as a mainstay up front to help open holes for a talented and deep group of running backs and sophomore quarterback Maliek Stallings, who is expected to be the team’s starter.
“You just really have to show them what you have got,” Roby said. “Our defense is still going to be the same defense even though we lost key players like Jeffery Simmons,” Roby said. “With us having a sophomore quarterback, I already rely on our defense to make plays. On offense, we try to go out there and execute when they make plays.”
Noxubee County has developed a reputation for making plays regardless of how many college signees graduate. He feels the program’s tradition will provide motivation for a group that is hungry to carve its identity and not be remembered as the team that wasn’t able to win a title.
“A lot of people don’t realize we have eight starters returning defensively. We just don’t have the big names,” Shorter said. “When you lose a middle linebacker at a Division I school (Barnett) and you lose a defensive end at a Division I school (Simmons) and a free safety who had more than 14 interceptions (Ball), people look at that and think Noxubee County lost everything. But these kids played a lot last year when Jeffery was hurt for six games.
“We don’t have those big names, but we play good defense at Noxubee County and we have eight starters back, and we have six starters back offensively. People look at it and say, ‘They lost Smith and they lost Conner. OK, they don’t have anything now.’ We have running backs back and linemen back, so we are excited.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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