CALEDONIA — Garrett Parish remembers the Caledonia High School boys soccer team talking about making the playoffs before the 2016-17 season started.
It didn’t matter to Parish or co-captain and senior classmate Quaid Phillips — or any of the other Confederates for that matter — that the team had a new coach, Louis Alexander, who was bound to change some things.
That didn’t bother Parish, Phillips, and the team’s other four seniors because they wanted to close their careers in style, so their hope was to help the team advance as far in the postseason as possible.
“We would do anything to get there,” Parish said.
Alexander, a Caledonia High graduate, shared that mind-set and set his plan in motion to elevate the program to the next level.
Caledonia is on the right course.
A 1-0 victory against Corinth on Monday pushed Caledonia (10-7-1) into the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A playoffs against Florence at 2 p.m. Saturday. A victory would secure Caledonia a spot in the North State title game against the winner of the match between Richland and Amory. That game is scheduled to be played Tuesday. The Class 4A State title game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4.
Caledonia used a goal from Richard Blaisuis off an assist from Wes Rollins in the 20th minute to advance.
Parish, who has signed to play soccer at Itawamba Community College in Fulton, credits Alexander for helping the Confederates stay on track.
“He’s a good coach, and he knows a lot,” Parish said. “Everybody learned more this year no matter if they want to admit it or not. I think he helped the program a lot, and even more than we could have thought of.”
Alexander, a standout forward at Caledonia High who went on to play at East Mississippi Community College, was hired in June to replace Mark Box. A native of Kentish Town in Northwest London, England, Alexander grew up playing soccer in England before his family moved to the United States. He attended school in Arkansas before moving to Columbus. He was an attacking and holding midfielder at EMCC and had nine goals in two seasons for the Lions.
Alexander spent a season as an assistant to Morgan Mansfield at Caledonia in 2009-10, when he helped lead the Feds to an 11-5 record and a berth in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A playoffs. He then joined Robert Gardner’s staff at Starkville Academy, where he was an assistant for the boys and girls teams. The Vols went 17-14-2 in Alexander’s two seasons, and the Lady Vols went 7-10 in one season. Alexander left coaching shortly after completing his degree at Mississippi State.
Alexander’s goal in returning to Caledonia High was to change the level of expectations. Caledonia lost to Florida 3-2 in the first round of the MHSAA Class 4A playoffs last season. In 2015, it lost in the second round to Corinth in a shootout. The loss marked the second-straight season the Confederates saw their season end in the second round. Florence eliminated Caledonia in the second round in 2014.
“The way you train directly correlates to the game-time situation,” Alexander said. “That was the hardest thing for them at first. I think they were a little shell-shocked as far as how hard we go at practice and how every minute is accounted for, but after a while they bought in, which I knew they would.
“I think we are hitting our stride, which is when you want to hit your stride — in the postseason. I think that will only carry on to next year, and it won’t take us so long to hit our stride and maybe we can hit it in game one or game two, like I would have hoped this year.”
Alexander said he didn’t worry about the initial adjustments early in the season. He said the Confederates didn’t understand the rewards the team could reap from improved communication. Alexander said it is imperative for all of the players to know when and where their teammates want the ball to played. He said communication also helped everyone know what runs are being made, when they are supposed to drop, press, cover, or pressure.
“If you do it more often you see the benefit,” Alexander said. “These guys don’t realize it until it happens, but when the ball is at their feet they want three guys screaming for the ball because there are three options and they don’t get tackled away. The more and more you do it it becomes habit.”
Phillips agrees Alexander has played a key role in the team’s maturation. He said Alexander has stressed communication and encouraged all of the players to talk to each other on the field. Phillips said the Confederates started slowly as they made the adjustment and learned not to be “shy” and grasped the importance of communication.
“After the first few games I didn’t know how our season was going to go because of our losses,” Phillips said. “After that game (a 2-0 loss to Class 4A runner-up Amory in overtime), I know we had a chance to go real deep in the playoffs.”
Phillips said the team had the confidence it could make a deep run in the playoffs. He said Alexander is a “phenomenal” coach who is going to put everything into helping his alma mater reach new heights. Phillips said it makes a big difference that Alexander played at Caledonia High because he understands the program’s tradition.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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