WEST POINT — The preparation doesn’t change for the West Point High School football program.
It doesn’t matter to Chris Chambless that his team has victories against Columbus, Louisville, Starkville, and Noxubee County to start the season. He doesn’t care that three of those teams figure to be in the mix for Class 6A and Class 4A State championships and that those same three could finish in the top 10 in the state’s final rankings.
Chambless and his players don’t have time to think about polls or records. The only thing the Green Wave are focused on is winning another state title.
Now that West Point has completed its non-region schedule, it is set the second phase of its journey to win another Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A State crown. The first step will come at 7 p.m. Friday when West Point takes on Lafayette in the Class 5A, Region 1 opener for both teams.
“It is district play. We are going to approach each game like it is the best team we have seen so far,” Chambless said.
Chambless knows West Point, which won its eighth state title — and first since 2010 — last season, knows his squad is going to get every team’s best shot. That has been the norm ever since the program won its first state title in 1982. More often than not, teams that rise up to see if they have what it takes to stop the Green Wave’s physical style of play leave the field battered and bruised and having to go back to the weight room because they don’t have what it takes. It remains to be seen if that will be the case for the final seven regular-season opponents, but West Point has shown an ability to score with alarming ease and to stop opponents just as easily.
But don’t think for a second Chambless or any of his coaches are going to allow the Green Wave to rest on past accomplishments, even a 47-14 victory against Noxubee County last week. Chambless said the Green Wave were “sloppy” at times, but he said the coaches challenged the players in practice to execute at a higher level, and he is anxious to see what happens Friday night.
Lafayette (0-4) moved up to Class 5A following the MHSAA’s latest round of reclassification. Last season, Lafayette beat Poplarville 27-12 at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium to win the Class 4A State title. It was the program’s third state title.
“They have got some good looking kids and kids that play hard,” Chambless said. “Whenever you go on the road it is going to be tough. We have to prepare a little bit better than we did last week. We didn’t do a great job at practice last week (coming off a bye week).”
Chambless said the Green Wave need to clean up details like having 10 men on the field for special teams or wasting a time out due to the incorrect personnel groupings. He said focus will be crucial with each step because the distractions will increase on the road to Oxford and another chance to play for a state title. Chambless said neither he nor his coaches will talk about opponents’ records or injuries or use any excuses if things don’t go the team’s way. It always has been a next-player-up mentality, as is the case with all of the attention being placed on the next game. Anything else would risk damaging the plans and preparations the Green Wave have in their minds for a celebration in December at the end of the line at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“Our guys know what is at stake. They know we can’t take steps backward and expect to win,” Chambless said. “We have to control ourselves. If I was a betting man, I would bet that our guys were going to come out and step up to the coaches challenging them and try to do better.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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