STARKVILLE — Ego isn’t part of the equation for Chase Nicholson.
The Starkville Academy first-year football coach admits he doesn’t have all of the answers. He also knows he isn’t the most experienced member of the team’s coaching staff.
But Nicholson doesn’t look at it as his coaching staff. If he did, he would have to say longtime coaches Bubba Davis and Tony Stanford and veteran coach Brad Butler are working for him. Instead, Nicholson prefers to say that he, Davis, Stanford, Butler, and assistant coaches Daniel Lott and Brooks Roberts are working together to help their players realize their potential. That approach has enabled Nicholson to build a strong relationship with state championship coaches like Davis and Stanford, who have more than 90 years of coaching experience between them, and keep the Starkville Academy football program moving forward.
“It’s very comforting,” Nicholson said. “The knowledge is one thing, and that is great, but it is the relationships they are able to form and the knowledge they have of the kids, not just of the game. They are two great coaches, but the way they can read a kid and know how to reach a kid and know every individual personality because they have come across them before, it is amazing to watch them form relationships immediately.”
Last December, Nicholson took over for Jeff Terrill, who retired after five seasons at Starkville Academy and 35 seasons as a coach. Terrill, a long-time coach in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, worked at Itawamba Community College in Fulton prior to taking the job at Starkville Academy. When Terrill arrived, the Volunteers were coming off an 0-10 season. Starkville Academy won three games in 2010 before it advanced to the state championship game for the first time in six seasons in 2011. In all, Terrill led the Volunteers to three playoff appearances and two state championship game appearances, including last season.
Nicholson spent the past six seasons as an assistant coach at Starkville Academy. He said he was fortunate Davis, a former head coach at West Point High School and Columbus High, was looking to move back to the area after spending three years as a defensive line coach at Wayne County High. He said his fortunes proved to be even better when he learned Stanford, a longtime coach who had stints at Louisville High, Columbus High, and Oak Hill Academy in West Point, was interested in joining his coaching staff as an offensive line coach.
Nicholson admits friends and people he talked to about Davis and Stanford told him he would be an “idiot” if he didn’t hire one or both of them. Needless to say Nicholson didn’t take the advice the wrong way.
“They have so much knowledge — they have been there and done that and seen it all — and they’re not afraid to tell you you need to work on this,” Nicholson said. “I don’t have all of the answers. I told them that when I talked to them the first time. I am just going to coach ball the best I can. They stay out of the technical part of it. They let me handle that. Of course, I can ask them anything,
and I have, and they give me advice. But they come to me with the day-to-day stuff at practice and this is what we need to do. For the most part, it makes me feel good because they don’t always have to do that, so I feel like I am doing good, but when they see something we need to work on, I know and they know there is going to be no question.”
Nicholson said Davis and Stanford have worked well with Butler, a former head coach at Heritage Academy who also was a member of Terrill’s coaching staff, to build the trust of the players. He said that is paramount because the players know the coaches have their backs. That trust came through last week, when Starkville Academy fell behind 21-0 to Washington School before rallying for a 31-21 victory. Starkville Academy (4-1) will try to build on that effort at 7 p.m. Friday when it takes on Heritage Academy (2-3) in a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, District 2 game in Columbus.
Nicholson laughs when he describes the dynamic on the coaching staff. He doesn’t hesitate to call Davis and Stanford “legends,” or “elders,” while he said he and Butler are the “big brothers or dads.” He said Lott and Roberts are the “college kids” who are like “brothers” to the players because they are the closest to them in age.
Nicholson believes the time he worked for Terrill helped him to understand the approach of older coaches. He said Terrill was so detail-oriented as an “old-school coach,” much like Davis and Stanford. Even though he admits he doesn’t compare to Terrill, Nicholson said the coaches use their different experiences to produce something that works.
Davis coached at West Point from 1974-93 and won four state titles (1982, ’87, ’88, and ’89). He also coached at Wayne County, Walker County in Jasper, Ala., Petal, and New Albany. He went 4-18 in two seasons at Columbus High before he opted to retire.
Davis, who worked with Nicholson as a member of Terrill’s coaching staff, remembered Nicholson as an energetic coach who was interested in learning. In fact, he said he would have been interested in hiring Nicholson if things had worked out and he had taken a job as a head coach. Now that they are working together again, Davis said Nicholson has worked hard to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“He has been all I thought he could be,” Davis said. “He gets along great with the kids. That high energy he has carries over to them. He is not typical in that a lot of these young guys it is all about them. I have never seen any of that in him. He will listen to you, and when he comes and asks something, he really wants to know. He takes what you offer and applies it. It has been great working for him.”
Davis said he sees a lot of himself when he was in his early 30s in Nicholson. He said that makes it fun to watch Nicholson perform. He credits Nicholson for his willingness to seek advice and to use it.
Stanford spent four seasons as head coach at Columbus High, where he went 22-23 and led the team to the playoffs in 2012 for the first time since 2005. Last season, Stanford worked as head football coach at Oak Hill Academy. He also spent two seasons as an assistant coach for Davis at Columbus High.
Stanford also has worked as a coach at Choctaw Central, Philadelphia, Kosciusko, Lumberton, Neshoba Central, Morton, and Carroll Academy. From 1995-2000, Stanford led Louisville to four division titles, one North State title, and the 1995 Class 4A State crown. He agrees with Davis that everyone has found it easy to work together.
“He is the man in charge. I just try to make him happy,” Stanford said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with age. He knows what he is doing, he has in his mind what he wants to accomplish, and he lays it out there for us and we try to go out there and get it done.”
Stanford said Nicholson’s ability to be humble and to allow the players to take ownership of the program has allowed him to make a seamless transition back to an assistant coach. Most importantly, he said the coaches and players are having fun. He said that reflects back on the players and creates an atmosphere in which everyone believes there is no ego and that everyone is going to work hard for a common goal.
For someone who doesn’t have 40-plus years of experience like Davis or Stanford, that might be the best indication that Nicholson’s ego could help him reach that level of experience.
“People like coach Davis and coach Stanford and coach Terrill don’t stay in the game as long as they do if they don’t evolve,” Nicholson said. “What is great about both of them is they have the old-school mentality but the new-scheme mentality. It is the mix of both with kids these days that balances it perfect, which is what I love because I am not old school, but I believe in old school and running the football and being physical.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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