WEST POINT — Chris Chambless has been a part of his fair share of blowouts through the years.
A year ago, the West Point High School football team won 10 games by three touchdowns or more en route to a Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A State title.
This season, West Point has won all six of its games by 20 or more points. It will look to continue that trend at 7 tonight when it takes on Lake Cormorant in a Class 5A, Region 1 game.
West Point is coming off a 49-14 victory against Lafayette and a 56-0 victory against Center Hill to open district play. Like in years past, Chambless said the Green Wave have to remain focused and avoid becoming overconfident because he knows every team will give his squad its best shot.
“I guess it is more of a mind-set,” Chambless said. “We just put an emphasis on winning the game and dominating. We want to dominate every game we play. If it was 56-49 nobody would be happy because we didn’t dominate.”
Chambless and the Green Wave get knocked for being boring because they continue to use a punishing running game, an attacking defense, and a stifling work ethic to achieve that dominance. He said the challenge for the coaches is to keep those ingredients as constants in the minds of their players and to keep them from getting distracted. In a program that has won eight state championships, that usually hasn’t been an issue.
At nearly the halfway mark of the season, Chambless said earlier this week he reminded his players about not hitting a “lull” because there is plenty of work to be done if West Point wants to play in Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in December for another state title.
Tonight’s game will present a unique challenge in that Lake Cormorant will play its first game since the death of senior linebacker Jaquarius Harper. Chambless said West Point will travel north with “heavy hearts.” He said the team will “do something nice” for the Lake Cormorant football program as well as take the program something and then play a “good, clean football game.”
Chambless also said senior linebacker Xavier Fair, who usually wears No. 33, will wear No. 34 in honor of Harper. He also said the teams will line up with 10 players to remember Harper.
“That is just how our players think,” Chambless said. “We are going to wrap our arms around them and be there to help them.”
Chambless said he met with his seniors at the beginning of the week to see what their program could do for Lake Cormorant (2-4, 1-1 region). He said Fair offered to do something for their Region 1 rivals.
Still, Chambless stressed the Green Wave need to remember they are going on a “business trip.” He had those words on the team’s practice plan Tuesday.
NOTE: Chambless hopes junior quarterback Jake Chambless will be ready to play tonight after coming off a shoulder injury.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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