Joshua Pulphus saw something when he accepted the position of head football coach at Columbus High School in March.
Pulphus, who spent 2018 as the tight ends coach at West Point, didn’t see a struggling football program. He didn’t see a team whose first-year head coach, Eric Rice, wasn’t on the sidelines for the final game of the Falcons’ winless season and was fired a few months later. He didn’t see a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in three straight seasons or a school that had dropped a MHSAA classification, going from Class 6A to Class 5A.
No, Pulphus saw a challenge.
“He’s accepted that challenge, and he’s working hard,” West Point head coach Chris Chambless said.
Under Pulphus’ leadership, Columbus broke a 20-game losing streak dating back almost two years. The Falcons won four games in 2019, staying alive in the playoff hunt until the second-to-last week of the season.
Pulphus knows his program still has a long way to go, but he can’t help but feel excited about his first year at the helm in Columbus.
“I think we’ve got it going in the right direction,” he said.
Getting the gig
Pulphus owes a debt to his wife, ShaRonda, for pushing him toward taking the job at Columbus.
The two talked about the opening when it became available, but initially Pulphus didn’t plan to apply.
“But she kind of pushed me, encouraged me to go ahead and do it, and I did,” Pulphus said.
The third of 10 participants in the Columbus search committee’s first and only round of interviews in February, Pulphus showed off his considerable football knowledge, athletic director Joe Garrett said.
But what separated Pulphus from the pack, according to Garrett, was the emphasis on academics he espoused.
In the interview, Pulphus laid out his plan: He wanted every player on his team to attend college, regardless of whether they planned on playing sports at the next level.
Garrett and the committee were impressed.
The phone call came in when Pulphus was at the state Capitol in Jackson with the Green Wave, with state legislators commemorating the team’s third straight state championship.
Officially offered the Columbus job, Pulphus didn’t hesitate to say yes. Garrett liked that.
“He knows it might be a struggle, so that means he’s really ready for this, and he’s gonna do the best he can to help our student-athletes,” Garrett said.
The next day, an excited Pulphus met with Garrett, already full of ideas to improve the program.
Getting started
Pulphus’ path toward a return to relevance for the Falcons involved a lot of time in the car.
He still lives in West Point with his wife and his three daughters, and ShaRonda is pregnant with a boy, who’s due in January. The family will try to move to Columbus after the baby is born, but for now, Pulphus faces a half-hour commute each direction.
“It gives me time to clear my head and think and meditate and reflect,” he said of the drive. “It gives me a chance to have my own personal time.”
Pulphus needed that, especially when his eldest daughter, 12-year-old Tyleria, had a heart blockage causing a slow heart rate, and doctors couldn’t diagnose the exact issue. Tyleria is healthy now, Pulphus said, but it was tough for him not to be there.
“I hated to be away from her,” he said. “But all in all, everything happens for a reason, so just give glory to God allowing this opportunity to come up, and I pray I can do my best with the situation.”‘
While Pulphus, who served as co-defensive coordinator at Columbus in 2013, had to reacquaint himself with his old program, his players had to prepare for their third head coach in three seasons.
That wasn’t easy, junior quarterback Ethan Conner said, but the Falcons were almost used to that.
The players weren’t nervous, just “ready to get back out here and start up again,” Conner said. “Figure out what his scheme is, figure out where we can get better as a team.”
Conner didn’t know anything about Pulphus when he was hired, but the quarterback soon discovered what his new coach expected: “to focus on football when we come to the field house; to be locked in when we do anything,” Conner said.
Pulphus’ emphasis on academics stood out, too.
He teaches an ACT prep class, and he has help in place for players struggling in the classroom: If anyone has a C or below, they’ll receive tutoring, either in the field house or working directly with a teacher, and a plan of improvement will be drawn up.
“I personally think I would be shortchanging the kids and not giving my best as a coach if I wasn’t concerned about their education,” Pulphus said. “Education is a priority.”
Getting better
Chambless is still in touch with former West Point assistants who moved on to head coaching jobs elsewhere, including former Green Wave running backs coach Alex Williams at Aberdeen and Pulphus.
“When I call to check on them, I get the feeling that we’re checking on each other,” Chambless said. “It’s fun to see them out there.”
When Pulphus drops by for a visit or the two coaches talk by phone, their conversations range from field maintenance to pregame meals and everything in between.
Chambless can tell his former tight ends coach has carried the work ethic West Point emphasizes into his new position, helping to keep the Falcons accountable.
“Culture can beat strategy any day of the week, and I think he’s working on that and creating a good culture for his team, a positive culture,” Chambless said.
However, as can be the case with a new program, that culture didn’t pay off right away. The Falcons lost three straight games to start the season. They managed 12 points combined in those three contests, and their first offensive touchdown didn’t come until the third game of the season.
But the Columbus community didn’t turn its back on its hometown team, which Pulphus was grateful for — defeat is inevitable in the midst of a serious rebuild, Chambless noted.
“When you start off, you don’t look at wins and losses,” Chambless said. “You look at how you want to run things, what you’re doing to try to create your future.”
The fans who stuck around caught a glimpse of that future two weeks later, when the Falcons beat Lanier 13-12 — breaking a losing streak dating back to September 2017 — and carried Pulphus on their shoulders.
Columbus beat rival New Hope on the road the following week and picked up two more wins, including an overtime road victory over playoff-bound division foe Lake Cormorant, in a 4-7 season. It’s not where Pulphus wants the program, but he knows it’s the start of something and is thankful for local fan support.
“That’s one thing I respect about the community: They know it takes time,” Pulphus said. “They’ve been proud of the way we’ve transitioned. They see how we perform in games and how we perform in practice and how the kids carry themselves. At the end of the day, it takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a year. They see the progress, and they see how much better we’re getting.”
Getting ahead
If Pulphus was a student, Garrett said, his first year as head coach would get a B grade — “real close to an A.”
“He’s doing a lot,” Garrett said. “I think that he’s got it. I know it’s a process, and he has standards. … He has goals, and he’s working toward that.”
Garrett took into account the benefits of Columbus’ move down to Class 5A, though he said the Falcons’ tough schedule this year somewhat balanced out the effect of the transition.
“It’s still challenging,” Garrett said. “I think it would have been the same (improvement) if we would have stayed in 6A.”
The Falcons have shown improvement in the classroom as well as on the field: Pulphus said his players had been getting good grades during the fall semester, an encouraging sign.
“He’s come in and changed a lot of things around,” Conner said. “Trying to change the culture one day at a time. Trying to make things better as a Columbus team.”
Garrett certainly has higher expectations for Pulphus’ second year as head coach. The Falcons will be “five times better,” Garrett said, and he expects the team to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
“We’re moving forward,” he said. “We’re definitely moving forward.”
With Pulphus at the helm, Garrett and the Falcons are encouraged about where they can go.
“I feel like he’s doing a great job,” Garrett said. “My goal was to have somebody come in to build a foundation, and that’s really what he’s doing. I’m very proud of him.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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