STARKVILLE — Chase Nicholson doesn’t believe the Starkville Academy football team is undefeated.
Like many coaches, Nicholson approaches each week as the start of a new “season.” His goal is to get his players to re-focus on another goal, or opponent, and to cast aside the emotions of a big win or a big performance.
“You kind of go, ‘I wish we could enjoy (each win) longer,’ but you can’t because you have got to move on,” Nicholson said. “There will be a team to enjoy it and look back on it and all of that good stuff.”
Through five games, Starkville Academy (5-0) has followed Nicholson’s plan without many pitfalls. There have been plenty of mistakes, as Nicholson will be quick to point out, but the Volunteers also have seen numerous players emerge and step into bigger roles in all three phases of the game. Each week, Nicholson feels Starkville Academy has moved closer to establishing an identity for the 2018 squad that sets it apart from the 2017 team that won the program’s seventh state championship.
The first true step to winning another title will come at 7 p.m. Friday when Starkville Academy travels to Louisville to take on Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA, District 2 rival Winston Academy.
Starkville Academy has allowed only 34 points and is coming off back-to-back shutouts of East Webster and MAIS Class AAAA Magnolia Heights. Those games, though, don’t have any bearing on the matchup against Winston Academy, which is the first of four district games Starkville Academy hopes to win to earn the No. 1 seed and a chance to play at home throughout the playoffs.
To get there, Nicholson hopes to Volunteers continue to follow the “24-hour rule” set by assistant coach Trace Lee that gives the players one day to enjoy or to stew about the latest game before turning the page. This week, Starkville Academy has focused on a Winston Academy team that is coming off a 15-14 victory against East Rankin Academy last week. The win snapped a three-game losing streak that saw coach Pat Byrd’s team score only two points (two shutouts). Byrd is the former head coach at Amory and at Saltillo.
Nicholson and his staff have done their due diligence, but he prefers to focus on his team with the attitude “everything we have done to this point doesn’t mean anything moving forward.” That point is magnified this week because it is a district game and the Volunteers won’t be able to realize their goal if they stumble in the first step.
“I don’t want them to say, ‘We’re undefeated. We’re going to be fine,’ ” Nicholson said. “We’re not undefeated. We’re 0-0. That’s what’s important.”
Nicholson said the Volunteers shortened the length of their practices this week in an attempt to keep the players fresh for what he hopes is a marathon. He said having less time each day increases the sense of urgency the players feel to work hard and to play every snap with intensity and focus. Nicholson said he liked what he saw and felt from his team early in the week, which he took as a good sign the players aren’t buying into the hype of a 5-0 start or are slowing down because they are undefeated.
It’s a little easier to believe you’re not undefeated when your coaches preach it every day. Nicholson will continue to emphasize that point as long as the Volunteers have a zero on the right side of their ledger. He hopes his players continue to listen, to stay excited, and to do their work every day so they can get better. Since he has shortened the length of his practices as head coach, Nicholson has seen the Volunteers take advantage of every moment. This week, the business is finishing 1-0 in district play.
“I don’t think the excitement is any different, but the sense of urgency is there because this game is very, very important to the future,” Nicholson said. “It is just the first step.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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