Seth Stillman hasn’t changed a lot in nine years.
Instead of a sporting a crew cut when he played, Stillman apparently has shaved his head. He also looks close to his playing weight of 235 pounds when he was a senior lineman for the New Hope High School football team.
But change is a big part of Stillman’s plan for the 2018 season. After four years coaching linebackers or the defensive line at West Point High, Stillman has joined Wade Tackett’s coaching staff at New Hope High in an effort to help the Trojans recapture their winning ways.
“It has been a lot of fun today getting ready for our first practice,” Stillman said Monday minutes before he and the rest of the New Hope coaches hit the practice field for their first official practice of the 2018 season. “I am excited about being back at New Hope. It does mean a lot to me to be back here. It is special. Today couldn’t get here fast enough.”
Stillman, who graduated from New Hope in 2010, was part of the football program’s most successful team in recent memory. In 2009, Stillman was a fixture on a team that went 11-2 and lost to eventual state champion West Point in the third round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A playoffs. His move back to New Hope has come with a change of scenery to a new field house adjacent to the school’s football field. It also features the added responsibility of teaching a 4-2-5 defense and a new way of playing defense at the school. In his day, Stillman was known for his tenacity, his ability to play through pain, and for his knack to have success against bigger opponents. He hopes he and the rest of the coaches can get the Trojans to buy into that mind-set.
“It was a good move for me,” Stillman said. “I learned a lot from those guys at West Point. Those guys taught me everything they knew, and it prepared me to accept this job. I couldn’t have done it unless I coached there first.”
Stillman credited West Point coach Chris Chambless and defensive coordinator Matt Snow for their insight and guidance. He said the lessons he learned allowed him to feel comfortable when he talked with Tackett, who was the head coach at Simmons last season, about taking over New Hope’s defense. He said it didn’t take him long to discover he and Tackett shared a vision and want their players to have the same attitude.
“He is just a go-getter,” Tackett said. “His work ethic is impeccable. It was a no-brainer. When I got the job, I assessed my needs as a staff goes and I was looking for a DC. I called a couple of guys I trust and they pointed me to Seth. I didn’t know who Seth was at the time. I talked to him for a few days in a row and I talked to some other guys. To me it was a no-brainer. He is a New Hope guy. He comes from a winning pedigree. I trust Chris Chambless and (West Point Hih assistant coach) Roger Burton and those guys.
“They all told me I would be an idiot if I didn’t hire him, and I didn’t want to be an idiot.”
Stillman said he hopes the Trojans play with the same fire and intangibles he had when he was a player.
“My parents instilled in me toughness,” Stillman said. “You don’t come off the field unless you have to be carried off the field. Coach (Michael) Bradley taught me the same thing. I have a ton of respect for him. He got me into this profession. He is the reason I wanted to do it, for my respect for him and the other coaches who were here at the time.
“We want to be nasty up front. I only know how to do it one way. That is wide open. That is the way we’re going to do it. We’re going to be nasty, we’re going to be tough, we’re going to use our hands, we’re going to play our reads, and we’re going to get after you.”
Stillman said New Hope has five players who gained experience on defense last season. He feels a young group will allow the coaches to make an imprint on a group he hopes can get New Hope back to the level of success he had in his final two seasons at the school.
Tackett will serve as offensive coordinator. Ryan Deer will coach the offensive line, Ryan Taylor (from Northwest Rankin High) will coach the wide receivers, Adam White has moved up from the junior high football program and will coach the secondary, and Nick Morrow, a junior high coach, will help out with the defensive line. Tackett said he recently lost a coach to another school in the district and he opted to leave the position unfilled.
Like Stillman, Tackett wants to change the culture at New Hope and hopes the players are ready to get after it.
“They have done really well,” said Tackett, who wasn’t with the team for spring practice. “For them, I think it has been a little bit of a breath of fresh air simply for the fact there were some unknowns. They knew coach Pickle. He had been here four years. I am the new guy. They didn’t know how I was going to be. I had one of them tell me the other day, ‘Coach, I thought you were going to mean.’ I don’t characterize myself as a mean person. They would say I am chill and laid back. I would say I am understanding and I know what their needs might be.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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