East Mississippi Community College football players want nothing more than a sixth national championship, but however the season turns out, players from the Golden Triangle will be at the center of it.
For starters, more than 20 percent of the Lions’ roster hails from Starkville High School, by far the single largest contingent from any high school.
“It definitely feels like home,” freshman wide receiver Joshua Aka said at the team’s media day.. “Being able to play with teammates you played with in high school, it just creates more chemistry, and not only that, but other teammates can build off of that energy.
“It’s been great seeing a lot of Starkville guys, and not only Starkville guys but GTA guys in general “
Lions coach Buddy Stephens is glad to have them.
“We have some really good football players from Starkville, and in our district, that are on our football team right now,” Stephens said. “I think we’ve got some of the best looking athletes from our district that we’ve had in a long, long time. Starkville has been very good to us the past couple of years.”
This past year, Columbus was pretty good to the Lions as well. The most dominant players on last year’s Falcons, quarterback Ethan Conner and linebacker Steven Cattledge, are now wearing the bright red uniforms of EMCC.
“They have such a great program, and I knew they can better me as a person and as an athlete on the field,” said the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Cattledge, who said the Lions’ past success doesn’t create any extra pressure for him. “No. We know we’re going to bring the ‘natty’ back this year.”
But Cattledge, who recorded 133 tackles as a Columbus senior, knows full well he can get better.
“I have some big players in front of me who will help me improve my skills,” he said.
Players don’t come to EMCC expecting to waltz in and start; there has been plenty of talent on the roster for years. For his part, Conner is taking a measured approach.
“I just do my job,” said Conner, who threw for 1,515 yards and ran for 1,011 as a high school senior last year. “I’m just taking it in, just learning what I need to learn.”
Conner said speed, both at practice and in games, is the biggest change from high school football.
“You have to learn things as quickly as possible, pick up on the little things,” he said.
“The biggest thing is teaching the guys the speed of the game,” Stephens said. “That’s what it boils down to.”
The northern point of the Golden Triangle is represented by third-year sophomore linebacker Brandon Lairy, one of the players who took advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted because of the pandemic.
“It kind of upset me, but now I’m probably more eager than ever,” the West Point High School graduate said of the year away from competition. “We want the state championship, the national championship, all of that.
“We have the talent, we have to put it all together.”
Aka is thinking along the same lines.
“We’re definitely looking forward to this year,: he said. “We have a lot of veterans. We have a lot of third-year players, and we have a lot of guys with a lot of experience. We’re just ready to attack the field this year.
“I know a lot of people have forgotten about us, but we’re on the way and we’re ready to go on another journey toward being a national champion again.”
Lairy said the 6-4 season in 2019 and the lost year of 2020 change nothing for the Lions.
“It’s the same goal every year,” said Lairy, who believes the national title years on display on the press box at Sullivan-Windham Field serve as motivation, not as a source of pressure. “You want to keep winning. You don’t want to stop.”
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