Barrett Donahoe doesn’t care about recent history.
The primary concern for the first-year Heritage Academy football coach is helping his players develop the right mind-set to compete every week. When that happens, Donahoe believes Heritage Academy has everything in place to be a perennial playoff contender in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools.
Donahoe will get an opportunity to see how his team compares to one of MAIS’ best at 7 Friday night when it travels to Jackson to take on Jackson Academy. JA (5-0) has won the past three Class AAA championships in a row, and has nine state titles dating back through the 1995 season. In that time, JA has won 10 consecutive games against Heritage Academy. The teams haven’t played every year due to the fact Heritage Academy has competed in Class AA in some years.
This season, JA and Jackson Prep again lead the way in the state’s private school rankings.
Donahoe knows about Jackson Academy’s dominance. But he and his coaches are stressing to their players that tradition doesn’t win games.
“Our players have to understand it does not matter who is on the other side of the football,” Donahoe said. “It is just a name on the jersey. … We have got to pass that mentality as players, coaches, and as fans, and we have to know we can go down there and we can compete. I am not sure we’re at that point, but we will do as much from a preparation standpoint to make sure it happens.”
Heritage Academy is coming off a 35-14 victory against Clarksdale Lee Academy last Friday. The victory helped the Patriots improve to 2-3 and 1-1 in the division. Donahoe said the victory helped Heritage Academy regain confidence and revitalized its playoff hopes with a division game against Magnolia Heights coming up next week. The top two teams in the division will advance to the playoffs.
Senior running back Miller Puckett led the Patriots with 150 rushing yards in the victory. Donahoe also was pleased his team didn’t hurt itself with penalties in the victory.
This week, Donahoe said the process of transforming the program continues. He said it is crucial Heritage Academy builds on the progress it made last week and doesn’t take two steps back like it has in previous weeks and in previous seasons.
“More than anything, we want to see our kids’ competitive nature,” Donahoe said. “I told the guys after watching film that the opponent does not matter and that when it comes to competitive nature, if you will be competitive for four quarters, you will give yourself the best opportunity to be successful.”
Donahoe said Jackson Academy continues to win a lot of games based on the name on its jerseys. He said Heritage Academy is not far off if you stack his first 11 against JA’s first 11. He acknowledges JA is deeper, but he wants to make sure his players believe they have a chance to win when they get on the bus and when they get off the bus Friday night. He feels the right mind-set will help his team take the first step and build toward becoming a championship program.
“What it takes for offensive execution to improve is one first down,” Donahoe said. “What we saw from the play-calling is if we get one first down the kids are like, ‘Hey now, we can do this,’ ” Donahoe said. “We can get our pads lower than the other team. We can drive our feet and get positive yards after contact. If we g down there and compete it will do leaps and bounds for our confidence as a team.
“Against Lee, our kids came out and had a little bit of confidence on the first drive and you could see it on their faces. They know all we have to do is execute and take care of our positions and we’re going to score against this group. If we get that mentality Friday night and have early success we will be OK.”
Immanuel Christian (1-4) at Park Place Christian (0-5)
Greg Watkins hopes the mistakes that put his team in an early hole last week in a 62-26 loss to Canton Academy have been forgotten as his team prepares for its game at 7 p.m. Friday at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson.
Two fumbles, including one when his team was about to score, helped Canton Academy build a 20-0 lead that Immanuel Christian couldn’t overcome.
“We came away feeling pretty good offensively because we were moving the ball in the first half,” Watkins said. “But the defensive miscues and the offensive miscues on the turnovers gave them some scores. In the second half it seemed like nothing could go right.”
Watkins said the Rams need to be more physical if they are going to realize their goal to get to the playoffs. He said his players have to learn their lessons in practice and avoid the habit of having the things they work on all week hurt them in games.
“We’re getting a little better at that, but we need to do it on a more consistent basis,” Watkins said. “I feel like we are moving along fine and learning. We’re still young and, hopefully, we can take a little bit more out of each game. I guess experience is the only way you can learn other than going over assignments. I feel like we are going to get there. It just takes time when you have a lot of young players and kids who have not played before.”
Park Place Christian has been outscored 236-14 this season. It has been shut out four times, including a 49-0 loss to Winona Christian in the second week of the season.
Winona Christian defeated Immanuel Christian 37-0 in week one.
Evangel Christian (2-2) at Victory Christian (1-3)
Chris Hamm wants the Rams to deliver the intangibles this week.
Last week in a 52-14 loss to Tabernacle, Hamm was disappointed Victory Christian didn’t match the intensity of their Christian Football Association rival. As a result, he felt the Eagles weren’t able to finish enough plays that ultimately played a big role in the outcome.
“We seemed to be on our heels all night and didn’t return the fight,” Hamm said. “We played a pretty good defensive game early on and made them drive the length of the field, but we had opportunities to stop them on third down and on fourth down.”
Hamm also said Victory Christian failed to execute on three onside kicks that allowed Tabernacle to run three times the number of plays than his team.
“I feel with more intensity and more awareness that we would have made a couple of stops here and there,” Hamm said. “If the plays were made it definitely would have caused the score to be closer. I am not going to say we were going to win the game because Tabernacle is a good team and they were playing at home, but it definitely would not have been a blowout.”
Hamm said his team will focus on the importance of focus for an entire game. He said that kind of attention to detail will help eliminate mistakes and give his team more chances to score.
“Monday was probably the toughest practice we have had all year,” Hamm said. “We were hitting and tackling, ad we’re going to do it again (Tuesday). We have to realize what it takes for this team to win. Right now, we don’t have that. It goes back to putting the players through a grueling practice and putting them in positions and showing them until we get people to step up and say, ‘This is what it has to be.’ I believe it is contagious and once they buy in others will. If not, we’re just going to keep floundering around and the year is going to end up being what it has been instead of what it could be. I am looking for leadership and aggressiveness and heart to make it what it needs to be.”
Evangel Christian, which is in Alabaster, Ala., lost to Tabernacle 26-20 on Aug. 31. It also defeated North River 62-0. Victory Christian will play North River on Oct. 11.
Last week, Evangel Christian lost to Hope Christian, of Pelham, Ala., 24-14.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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