STARKVILLE — Respect is defined by actions, not words.
To understand that concept, you need only to examine what Starkville High Athletic Director Stan Miller and football coach Jamie Mitchell have accomplished.
Miller said this week the most important move he made nearly two years ago was hiring Mitchell as the Yellow Jackets’ football coach.
“My job is to win an all-sports championship at Starkville,” Miller said. “It starts with the football program. It starts with the excitement on Monday morning around your school when your football team is winning,”
Mitchell admitted he wouldn’t have taken the job if Miller hadn’t convinced him Starkville High was the place he needed to be.
“I asked around knowing he’d been there before and other places and they all said, ‘He’s the guy you want to work for,’ ” Mitchell said. “We think so much alike that it’s scary sometimes, but to have him as a boss is a blessing because if you need it, he’ll get it for you.”
Nearly two years ago, Miller targeted Mitchell to replace Bill Lee as the school’s football coach.
“I looked him straight in the eye and asked him, ‘Jamie, do you want to win state championships?” Miller said. “When he said, ‘Yes,’ then I told him, ‘Starkville is where you need to be.’ ”
Mitchell’s plan for returning Starkville High to prominence involved incorporating the numerous middle school programs that were winning local and state championships before Mitchell, who coached football at Olive Branch and Itawamba Agricultural High, arrived.
“I looked at the young players in the seventh and eighth grade and knew the talent was there, but it was just a matter of getting them practicing so they’re ready for the next level of our program,” Mitchell said. “Clichés are there for a reason, and you do have to build a program from the bottom to the top.”
After a 5-6 season in 2010 that saw SHS lose four games by seven points or less, Mitchell realized it would take a different attitude from his older players who had only experienced losing and mediocre performances in high school.
“It’s about trust, and they needed to trust me and my staff that (we) would make them better fathers, husbands, citizens, and then football players,” Mitchell said. “You can’t expect kids to trust you as a coach immediately. They have to see the results over time.”
Then the news came from the Mississippi High School Activities Association that Starkville High would drop from Class 6A, the state highest classification, to Class 5A. While that allowed Starkville to be one of the biggest schools in its new class, Mitchell downplays that as the only reason Starkville is playing Ridgeland at 7 tonight for the North Half title.
“When you look at 5A football, it’s one of the most competitive classes in the state of Mississippi, and all we had to do is look across the way at West Point to find premier competition,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell brought in assistants Chris Walters as defensive line coach and Justin Moss as offensive line coach before the 2011 season. Walters, who coached at Smithville High last year, spent five years as the defensive coordinator at DeSoto Central.
Moss, a former Aberdeen High offensive coordinator was a volunteer assistant for Mitchell at Olive Branch.
“Whether it was bringing in new coaches, getting that scheduling worked out for that final period of the day, or the facilities we’re working on now, we’re willing to give Jamie Mitchell what every other coach in the state has,” Miller said. “We have the thoroughbred athletes at Starkville High, and all we needed was the leadership.”
The transition started with a difference in the weight room. Mitchell couldn’t help notice a difference in pregame warmups between the teams on the field.
“Part of that trust and belief is looking in the mirror and seeing a different human being,” Mitchell said. “Our kids are more fit, tougher, and physically ready to accomplish their goals at this level. They should be proud of what they’ve done and how hard they’ve worked.”
Mix everything together and Starkville natives will say it was the work ethic of two men that has helped the Yellow Jackets get back to being one of the state’s best football programs.
“I was driving back and forth between Arkadelphia, Ark., to Starkville almost two years ago because I bleed yellow and black — always will,” Miller said. “I needed everything in place by July, so when I turned our premier program over to a man like Jamie Mitchell, we’d put up wins and fans in the seats. The Yellow Jackets are back to doing that right now, and this community loves it.”
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