#1 – Festus Tigers
In one sparkling first-half performance against the Kearney Bulldogs, the Festus Tigers did more to show that they’re ready for the BIG time than they have in any playoff victory, any close defeat, or even in the Show-Me Bowl itself since Midmeadow Lane’s head coach A.J. Ofodile assumed the reins in 2020.
The specter of the Festus defense getting tired and letting KHS wipe out the second half with long drives clouds our vision of spectacular plays from the get-go. Parker Perry stunned Kearney like no quarterback in Missouri has ever stunned it, throwing two TD passes on the Tigers’ first three plays while mounting not one, not two, but three early leads in the Class 4 Semifinal, the third of which lasted well into the second quarter. FHS tight end Braydon Wilkes looked like the Travis Kelce of MSHSAA. Sophomore defensive lineman Gibson Cotham announced his presence by making bullish tackles-for-loss against the most incredible Large School rush offense in the state. PK Luke Wacker is “Charlie Brown” no more. It’s magnificent that Festus High played so much better against a state champion this time around.
There will be plenty of time to talk Festus football – of the Class 4 and Class 2 variety – this offseason. For now, suffice to say that as good as you hear the Tigers might be in 2026, an adjective like “good” probably won’t apply anymore. Perry, Wilkes, Kamden Yates, and Gus Drinen will spend plenty of time frolicking in opposing end zones in days to come, but the media’s focus on offense might overlook what may be Tanglefoot’s true threat to get to the Show-Me Bowl and win it in Perry’s senior year.
The Festus High School defense of 2026 is set to be fearsome. Fearsome! Whoa, what a defense that the Tigers can put on the field by next autumn. The FHS defensive front will be poised to feature Wilkes, Cotham, Aiden Schirmer, Antonio Pinkston, Beau Canaday, and Carson Grass, each of them peaking together as upperclassmen. Yates’ burning speed will accompany Drinen’s reach and the consistency of seniors-to-be Max Foglesong and Liam O’ Brien in Black & Gold’s defensive backfield. Galin Hall’s improbable INT on Kearney’s last turn of the first half marks another junior as up-and-coming.
That’s not a good lineup. That’s a crazy-good lineup. It was encouraging that Kearney didn’t much try to throw over the top on Festus, since it shows there’s still plenty of speed and coverage on the back end to go with what’s potentially the most dominant, disruptive, and fearful defensive front that the Tigers have ever put on the gridiron. It’s also noteworthy that Festus stopped Kearney on fourth down on its *first* offensive turn, too, only to have Flappy & Pitchwell jinx that and hand Kearney its first TD. Even after that lousy second half for the defense in the semis, the boys have to know that they’re one stamina upgrade away from stopping a team like Kearney. When you can do that, you can win the whole darn thing.
#2 – Northwest Lions
Speaking of rising powers below the Meramec, the Northwest Lions made a run up the Jefferson County Power Poll that was just awesome in the fall of 2025. Junior quarterback Cohenn Stark’s 2800+ combined passing and rushing yards are the sign of a team bound for another super season, but Stark’s progression alone isn’t half of what Cedar Hill has accomplished. NHS’s deep, talented supporting cast helped Stark be the “Cole Ruble” of Big River and lift a program out of the doldrums, and we’re eager for the senior campaigns of student-athletes like Jeremiah Clines on defense and the Belcher brothers on offense.
Chase and Kaleb Belcher combined for three INTs and almost 100 tackles on defense themselves. Due credit to the one-unit specialists who have helped Northwest football out of the ashes and into the top-2 of a prestigious county, but praise goes to head coach Scott Gerling for recognizing the Suburban League’s opportunities for Class 6 players to rest during the season, and in turn, getting the absolute most out of them when the chips are down. Gerling employed an Iron Man strategy as if Cedar Hill was in Class 3 this campaign, producing as many or more impressive two-way stat lines as Russ Schmidt and Lee Freeman’s fine Iron Man teams of the Mississippi Conference. Clines caught five balls this season, Omarion Frazier made 32 tackles to go with his 868 reception yards, and Adam Banks combined 300+ total yards with a bigger tackle total and a fumble recovery. Drew Spratt scored seven TDs – albeit one on defense in the watershed win over Fox – while bringing down 81 opposing ball-carriers in the linebacker’s senior trek.
Northwest’s schedule will change to a slate with less Suburban League cupcakes, but potentially just as many winnable games, in 2026 and 2027. We’re excited to see a hefty group of sophomore linemen in their junior years throwing blocks for Stark, who’ll be targeting Caleb Belcher and Brayden Jones as seniors in the receiving corps by next summer. But it’s gotten to be where you can’t go talking about the Northwest Lions or Seckman Jaguars’ playoff chances in Class 6 without looking at the Jackson Indians. If Jackson doesn’t come down from the stratosphere, will the Indians keep making a wall that neither team can hurdle, or “Hartle” for that matter? It’s unlucky that just when QB Drew Parsons is graduating from Jackson, the Indians’ star running back Jaylon Hampton is still looking forward to his senior season.
Don’t make any assumptions about 2026 just yet. Hampton’s parents might happen to find cushy jobs in Nixa as soon as Jayden McCaster graduates. The running-back economy of western Missouri is just short of NIL deals at this point. Cardinal Ritter should try to loot the Ozarks before taking on Carthage again.
#3 – St. Pius Lancers
Cody Shaver! Going into his senior season as the top weapon in the Show-Me State! Ran for 3002 yards on the year! Missouri’s rushing champion who won the STL Metro Area crown by 600 yards! The top rusher in St. Pius X history! JeffCo’s point-scoring leader with 32 touchdowns! The winner of …
The Rest of the St. Pius Lancers: ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT
Where do the Lancers go from here? To a new stadium at Hill Valley, for a start. St. Pius football is soon to grace a stadium that may be very modern compared to Father Dalton, simply perfect timing for a brand that’s coming off a watershed of epic proportions and a runner-up finish in Class 2. The potential bummer, of course, is that we won’t be able to keep calling it “Hill Valley” – ala Back to the Future – unless St. Pius keeps some aspect of its current old-fashioned setup for Friday Night Lights. St. Pius X’s cushy natural turf remains the most likely characteristic to survive the switch, since we know that everyone at St. Pius likes the natural grass. It also makes the Varsity Lancers’ venue different in a world of “TopGolf” surfaces.
Before setting foot in the new stadium, or even the lot that’s turning into it, the St. Pius Lancers must arrive home from St. Joseph and try to pick up the pieces after an 0-59 defeat. There’s no point in going over too many details from a massive let-down of a Show-Me Bowl appearance. St. Pius X was outclassed by Blair Oaks’ repeat state champions, yet Blair Oaks is suddenly the standard-bearer for all of Class 3 and Class 2, so with that taken into consideration, it’s like the Lancers had to meet Class 3’s reigning champions to find out that there’s still at least one Small School team that they can’t quite hang with at this time. Once the Lancers mature and develop a little more, they’ll be able to move the ball all day instead of just in the first quarter against a championship team. It was the opposite of the St. Pius Bowl performance, because the SPX offense looked better than the defense did against Blair Oaks. But the Lancers defense did get better against Tyler Bax later on. Bax stayed on the field for an inexplicable 1.5 quarters of trash-time.
St. Pius ’25 shouldn’t have been compared to 1995’s Herculaneum Blackcats. It should’ve been compared to 1991’s Class 3 Show-Me Bowl squad wearing Black & Red, because Scott Croom’s lineup and Shaver’s lineup wound up sharing the same Week 15 experience. Both teams took the opening kickoff and started marching down the gridiron like always. Then they turned the ball over, got shocked by the opposing offense’s speed and skill, and ended up blown-out by deserving state champions 34 years apart.
TGG is just kidding with the Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson video clip, but it is true Shaver’s offense will tend to get too big of a percentage of St. Pius’ hype for next season, and not just because of #40’s legs. Gateway City reporters will marvel at Evan Eckrich’s throws to Harrison Ray, Wyatt Harris, and next year’s senior titan at tight end in Dawson Litterall, who The Geek thought was a junior already when Mississippi Magazine began giving him All-Star awards in 2024. The offensive line will return almost everyone at guard and tackle in 2026, ready to clear a path for Hill Valley’s tricky multiple offense.
Shaver, Eckrich, and Ray still don’t combine to make the biggest story of the St. Pius offseason … at least not when they’re practicing with a ball. The Geek thinks DEFENSE will be the Lancers’ foremost weapon in 2026, and not because their offense won’t be really good. St. Pius the Tenth will keep 10 of its recent starters on defense, with the return of Hunter Hylton poised to help make up for the graduations of Danny DeGeare and Zane Creed. Shaver and Litterall combined for 16 QB sacks this season – it can’t be great for St. Pius opponents when those two line up side-by-side in their senior campaign. Behind that front-seven, a Lancers defensive backfield that was already outstanding in 2025 could turn into a terror for opposing quarterbacks, as Ray builds on six INTs and K’vian “Karl Anthony” Townsend-Flores turns a senior.
The next St. Pius Lancers defense has such a high ceiling of potential that opponents might start running up the middle rather than expose their skill players in the open field, going straight ahead as the path of least resistance. If the Lancers’ defensive line takes another upward turn due to SPX’s year-round weightlifting program, there might simply be nowhere for an opposing Class 3 offense to go.
You read that right: “opposing Class 3 offense.” St. Pius X has been promoted to Class 3 following its runner-up finish in Class 2, something that the Lancers have already mentally prepared for and readied themselves to embrace. You won’t hear any “It’s Communist!” griping from a Lancers fan base that’s excited, not scared, to see its wonderful new team play against the best competition possible. It is probably the case that SPX isn’t ready to win Class 4, but it could conquer the Class 3 bracket.
Festus, Northwest, and St. Pius could combine for a hefty number of shut-out wins next season. Recall that Northwest’s defense, the least-heralded unit of the trio, made the biggest midseason jump when Northwest went from defeating Webster Groves 42-35 to beating Seckman 14-7 fewer than two months afterward. The only thing which could hold JeffCo’s top three back from freezing 10+ combined rivals ice-cold with 0 points is that Northwest and St. Pius’ schedules are each going to get harder. In the Lancers’ case, St. Pius is taking on a few more “impossible” tasks, but in more familiar locations.
Ever try to picture Farmington vs St. Pius? We’ll get to see that in 2026. Hill Valley’s got some Suburban League teams on its new schedule, and a date with Vianney on the horizon. If the Black Knights, Golden Griffins, and other opponents with fancy names and fancier playbooks are as tough next season as they were this year, St. Pius has its work cut out trying to stay above .500. No one will question whether the Lancers can win in the playoffs, though. Not anymore. The question of whether the JCAA created a monster by kicking SPX out was answered by this November’s unearthly roar of a playoff run.
#4 – Seckman Jaguars
Friday Night Lights reporting is consumed by running backs in much the same way that NFL reporters are obsessed with quarterbacks. The Geek once saw an NFL team predicted to finish last by Sports Illustrated with its QB and his offense coming off a very good year. The SI rationale? “If two or three of the offensive guards go down, there will be some inexperience on the line.” Uhh yeah, but there would be inexperienced offensive linemen starting for any NFL brand which had three injuries at guard! Nobody ever predicted that Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys were going to finish 4-12-1 because of Dallas’s lack of third-string offensive line experience. The truth was the SI blogger had one thing on his mind – his opinion that the quarterback was due for a bad follow-up year. He probably ignored the rest of the lineup completely, making his closing argument about the third-string offensive line just to appear more in-depth.
TGG doesn’t want to fall into that trap – the “running back” trap in the case of Seckman pigskin. Team defense, motor, and good fundamentals remain the calling cards of HC Nick Baer’s program, which was excellent in the clutch against Fox while playing two games’ worth of spirited defense against Cohenn Stark and the upstart Northwest Lions.
Correction: Apologies to QB Brody Kube for labeling him a “senior” in today’s earlier version. We’re happy to note that he’s got a year left in The Valley.
Seckman’s burly and numerous Class of 2028 has the talent to buffer the loss of linebacker Dylan Lappe and defensive end Luke Ferrario, who combined for 17 sacks this year. Seckman’s senior classes are getting so big that they’re going to dwarf those of many Suburban foes who call themselves rivals.
But it’s undeniable that Seckman goes as its rush offense goes. It was Cole Ruble’s record-setting runs that lifted the Jaguars into their current era of success, and Brady Ambrose’s churning legs that buoyed a 10-1 season in 2024. Chance Ruble is a quality “RBI hitter” type of rusher who’ll be a senior in 2026. He would be better served in an ensemble backfield, though, hopefully one with more big-play threats than Seckman had on the field this fall. We’ve got our eye on RB Jaxson Jablonski, the Jaguars’ fascinating sophomore who is only 5’6″ but is advertised as running a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash already. Jablonski rushed for over 100 yards and a TD on just 10 total carries in a crowded backfield this season.
#5 – Fox Warriors
Arnold will be switching out QBs in 2026, and The Geek is as mystified as anyone about who the next Fox Warriors quarterback will be. The senior Chandler Price was the only kid in Red & White to take any snaps this autumn. The only other quarterback listed on Fox’s HUDL roster is Brayden Van, a current sophomore with no highlights, no rushing stats, and a “5.4” 40-yard dash time listed that makes him appear to be a passing specialist – not the kind of QB that a Brent Tinker-Dan Fox offense prefers to have taking the helm.
Don’t ruminate on the Fox offense too much. It’s been stingier defense that pulled Northwest up out of the doldrums this decade, and originally, that was the case for Seckman too, no matter how many TDs Cole Ruble was galloping for while Imperial’s defense shut opposing teams down.
Conservative playbooks full of running plays are often criticized for not being able to erase 14-point deficits to prevail 51-50. That misses the point. Fox should be able to win 28-14, if the Warriors defense can step up.
The Fox defense of 2026 won’t have a massive senior contingent, but neither did the lineup that roared to life and frustrated Ladue on the Varsity Rams’ Senior Night. TGG is encouraged to see Arnold’s big-time contributors Jude Pribish, Corbin Fullerton, and Gavin Pecoraro all turning Grade 12 at the same time.
That trio’s maturing process, plus the senior Ryan Joggerst returning as one of the most effective middle linebackers in Jefferson County, could give the defense a formidable presence that it only boasted in spurts in ’25.
Last but not least, Fox’s schedule will change at least a little bit for next season. We can presume that the Warriors won’t again meet five opponents as tough as Seckman, Ritenour, Eureka, Rockwood Summit, and Northwest in a row, a punishing trek that led to Fox’s midyear losing skid.
#6 – Hillsboro Hawks
Folks have to credit the Hillsboro Hawks for putting on the best performance of Jeff County’s recent 0-3 run in the Show-Me Bowl. You can’t say Festus or St. Pius scared Lutheran North or Blair Oaks very much respectively, but HHS most certainly frightened Kearney with Payton Brown’s early dash to the goal-line in the 2023 Class 4 championship tilt. Mississippi Magazine has knocked the Hawks for having made silly special-teams calls in that contest, but on offense, the Hawks showed up like a championship team.
Hillsboro is getting a fresh (and a “soph”) infusion of talent from its underclass ranks of 2025. The Ross brothers will arrive in 2026’s training camp as veterans. Jadyn Rice was fall’s frosh phenom who didn’t get to gallop as much as Jaxin Patterson or Austin Romaine at a tender age, mostly because Hillsboro plays a more balanced style of offense than it did under the Flexbone adherent Lee Freeman. Trey Zimmerly will be a featured RB in any formation in his senior season after a promising performance as a junior.
Who will play quarterback with Braxton Chazelle ready to move on? Current sophomore Aiden Fleming has played well in backup duty, going 63% through the air on the 2025 season, completing 5-of-9 throws in Hillsboro’s loss to Chaminade. Fleming doesn’t have classic size for a pocket QB at 5″10″ and 165 pounds, but he’s fleet-footed enough to have outpaced most of the Leon Hall backfield in YPC. The preparation of Fleming as a future dual-threat starter could mean that Hillsboro is going to go old school next season. It’s evidence of what Coach Stotler from Hillsboro has been trying to tell The Geek, which is that the power-running game has never gone away for the Hawks … and it’s going to ramp up in 2026.
#7 – DeSoto Dragons
MSHSAA appears to have adopted one of DeSoto head coach Russ Schmidt’s very best ideas. The Geek was flat wrong about Lift For Life and other Charter Schools not being eligible for promotion to higher classes, at least according to bulletins that have LFL moving to Class 4. Mississippi Magazine didn’t know that Lift For Life ever played one year in Class 3 due to promotion rules, we just thought they got a little bigger. The reason more Charter schools aren’t promoted isn’t because they can’t be, but because we’ve fielded so many who struggle to win! At least LFL is snapping that trend.
Schmidt has told TGG that he believes “zip codes,” not necessarily the Public-Private issue, are the key to determining a fairer system of brackets. “St. Mary’s had players from over 25 zip codes when it beat Hillsboro in the 2022 playoffs,” he said. It makes sense that the wider of a net a program casts in acquiring student-athletes, the easier it is to hand-pick a team to kill a division. Charter Schools don’t always get the fiercely independent oversight that helps Valle or St. Pius schedule extra practices, but they can cast a wide net. Lift For Life is promoting to Class 4 after two straight Final Four berths.
It’s not especially scary for DeSoto, or the Mississippi, that Lift For Life Motorized Scooter Company could wheel into the Dragons’ bracket. Class 4’s athletes are used to dealing with assembled squads from Lutheran North and St. Mary’s, and there is no guarantee that the 2026 Hawks (Lift For Life Hawks, not Hillsboro Hawks) will defeat or surpass either of those schools next November. In fact, our quarter of the Class 4 bracket has turned into a convenient path to the semifinal. Win the Mississippi Conference and you’ll probably win District 1. Then you’ll likely be favored over District 2’s winner.
DeSoto could be poised to take advantage – finally! – of a winnable postseason trek next year. Joachim Junction is said to possess a ton of talented underclassmen who were just a season away from being able to make an impact in 2025. True to form, Schmidt didn’t allow many freshmen to see the gridiron on Friday nights, but the Class of 2029’s potential is starting to surface on stat sheets and in measurables. Cannon Kisner’s progression as a junior QB will be boosted by the 15-year-old hulk Caleb Barton, who made 35 tackles for 2025’s defense while being prepped as a key offensive lineman going forward. DeSoto’s freshman and sophomore ranks (soon to be sophomore-junior ranks) are well-stocked with 225+ pounders, a blessing for a program that badly needs more bulk at the line of scrimmage.
Watch for 6’2″ Damian “The Omen” Pogue at DeSoto’s next camp, following a sophomore season of nearly 300 total yards on just 34 touches. Pogue added 73 combined tackles for 2025’s defense.
#8 – Grandview Eagles
It’s important to take a wide-angle view on the Grandview Eagles. They didn’t win that district title that we all felt could be coming in 2025, but they did score the Birds of Prey’s second playoff win since the revival, and a third winning season since Friday Night Lights went Dittmer-dark in the late 2010s.
It’s important how a school plays when it’s bidding for a championship. It’s also just as important – in TGG’s mind, anyway – how they play in a season after the whole student body seems to graduate, and not much is expected of them. Nobody should want to be Kennett or Duchesne, teams that inspired fear back when Grandview was contending in 2021. Not only do those teams no longer make opponents tremble, they’ve been plum awful since getting hit by grim graduations and coaches flying the coop. Grandview football has outlasted those former powerhouses to keep succeeding all along. Can the Eagles keep beating their competition in the realm of consistency, if not with collections in the trophy case?
GHS should be staying in Class 1 next season, and the Eagles have the material to make noise in it. There’s 23 returning athletes according to MSHSAA’s official lineup, more than Crystal City had to work with prior to its second straight run to the Elite Eight in Class 1 one season ago. Brock Poole gives the Eagles a built-in featured back to build around on offense. The Quad County Conference looks even thinner than it did when the QCC began, giving Cory Hanger’s team a few breaks in the gauntlet.
A worry for next year is that GHS administrators couldn’t have known how Class 1 would begin growing, or that schools like Grandview and Charleston would wind up in the Class 1 field, when they set about putting 2026 and 2027’s schedules together. They have known since this summer, at which point perhaps some negotiations may be made, but not too many. Grandview – like CCHS – needs to avoid toweringly-larger opposing schools to put more strong W/L records on the ledger. There’s no good motivation to keep Principia on the slate, or any more Quincy Notre Dame’s. MSHSAA’s standings will give Grandview the same bonus-points for playing Class 3 that it garnered against Class 4 rivals as a Class 2 team, and you can’t get more than two classes’ worth of bonus points out of any contest. If (hopefully) C1 is going to start including more, not less teams, GHS has adjustments to make.
In Grandview’s own up-and-comers category, it’s impressive that Christian Volner averaged 8.0 YPC while shining on all three units in only his sophomore year for the Birds of Prey. Recall that Clark Struckoff of Herky was known as an all-around contributor until he turned upperclassman and took over the backfield. Volner will play defense after snagging two INTs in 2025 … but Brock’s not a lock to take every carry.
#9 – Herculaneum Blackcats
Herculaneum is unlucky that this Jefferson County Power Poll is a season’s end-er as much as an outlook for 2026. Herky made up for its losses to Grandview and Jefferson by scoring a win over St. Vincent, a Class 2 contender whom neither the Eagles or the Blue Jays could scratch at all this fall. It feels almost inexorable that HHS will surpass Grandview in the Power Poll next Week 1 … but the Eagles nearly won two titles, and we aren’t there yet.
If Lift For Life is raised to Class 4 while the St. Pius Lancers are promoted to Class 3, next year’s district bracket with Herculaneum in it could be among the coolest setups in two neighboring counties. Instead of one team lording over everything, we could boast Valle, St. Pius, Herculaneum, and Ste. Genevieve seeded as the top four in a theoretical District 1, 2, or 3, four teams who could put some barnburners on the field in November while sharing a ridiculous amount of rivalry-series history. Herculaneum’s calling card will be prodigious size on the LOS again in 2026, though if the junior-to-be Lenny Eaves has the speed that coaches claim he does, there might finally be one Blackcat that nobody on Valle Catholic’s defense can catch.
#10 – Windsor Owls
Windsor, as much as any team in the Dirty Dozen, needs an upgrade on defense. We can say that WHS as a program is stuck in the same rut that it’s been in for many seasons, but head coach Lee Freeman’s particular team has a different pattern to go with the same results. Much like a few colleges that we know, Imperial’s coaching staff has successfully installed a nifty option-offense that can set school records, but there’s no spark anywhere else – not in the passing game, not on special teams, and not on defense. If Windsor could only produce a few low-scoring defensive games with Festus, NCHS, and Hillsboro, chances are that QB Jett Black’s burgeoning run game could break through for the winning TD.
Freeman should finally have the numbers, size, and talent to put a solid defense on the gridiron in ’26. We’re fond of the ages and the measurables among a haberdashery of hosses who should make up the nucleus of Windsor’s next OL-DL combination, including seniors-to-be Brandon Mahone at 6’2″ and 270 pounds, Chase Walker at 6’2″ and 255 pounds, and a third long, lumber-layin’ defensive end in Jayden Grindell, who scored a pair of QB sacks this year. Then there will be a pair of “Jackson”s – Turner and Ceriotti – in next season’s junior class who’re big enough to be from Jackson.
Add that kind of presence in the trenches to the speed of Black and Jack Kuda, and you just might have something. If Windsor shows up to training camp with each of its upperclass linemen healthy and lifting weights, then next season is when Windsor’s ball-control chops begin hurting its Mississippi rivals.
#11 – Jefferson Blue Jays
What about the Jefferson Blue Jays’ prospects on the line next season? Jefferson, maybe even more than Crystal City, is representative of the Jeff County teams for which dicey blocking and lost edges on defense have foiled a set of outstanding players’ chance to make an impact. For instance, QB Cooper Frisk had to run for his life too often to have another All-Conference type of season, but he drove the Blue Jays’ offense to score 40-plus touchdowns through sheer talent and moxie anyway. The Jefferson offense was under pressure to shine all the time while under duress.
It’s splendid that eight out of 10 linemen are set to return to Blue Jay Way. Troy Jefferson moves on after leading ‘Jays in sacks this year, although the defense has to return to being an 11-man disciplined unit or pass-rushers like Troy won’t have any fun. Jefferson’s rushers all averaged over 5.0 YPC in 2025. RB Aiden Kentch, who is set to return as a senior (unless Nixa has made an offer), starred with nearly 10+ YPC and double-digit TDs. Jefferson’s line has been blocking well in fits and starts. The experience boost that’s about to come from eight returning vets could be just what the doctor ordered.
#12 – Crystal City Hornets
We’re giving head coach Craig Collins a pass for Crystal City’s hopefully one-off poor record in 2025. The Crystal City Hornets were hit by a crushing schedule of Class 4 opponents and kept losing their only quarterback with the bone girth, experience, and real-time chops to succeed, with just a talented plebe in frosh Kolton Adams left to substitute for the injured Landyn DeRousse much of the way. The Sunken Place accumulated all those regular-season victories in 2022 without thinking that the Hornets had anything to show for it, due to the wicked spell of the pesky Louisiana Bulldogs. Lo and behold, that year’s nearly perfect record underlines the foremost legacy now, which is that Crystal has won so many darn games for being a previously struggling team that’s still had the smallest student-body in all of Class 1 in some years. CCHS had one bad season, and that’s alright.
Besides that, Coach Collins’ style – and his dynamic skill set – has brought a new element to Crystal City pigskin over the last six months: Casual Fans! Casual fans are the least-important type of fan in college and NFL ball, but arguably the most-important in Friday Night Lights, because no team wants to be caught “playing house.” Performing for an audience of parents-and-only-parents is the biggest bummer around. Casual fans pick up on a fascinating postseason run like Crystal City had in 2023-24, becoming passionate fans as November brings unexpected thrills from alma mater on Fridays and Saturday, when maybe their college teams lost. Collins’ many efforts to publicize the Hornets didn’t just get more casual fans to the Hornets’ games, but galvanized folks around Crystal’s amazing rise in the local scene in the 2020s. It reminded us that even grizzled administrators can begin to follow a team from across the state, and get so excited about it that they’re obsessed with spreading the word. JeffCo has got to grow more coaching staffs that hype and celebrate their teams like CCHS does now! It makes players want to take part in “Year Round” programs, teams that start 2026’s hard work right away. The results of Jefferson County’s newly-installed Year Round Programs at Festus and St. Pius X speak for themselves.
On the downside, we’ve got to hope CCHS’s armed serviceman can still deal with pressure. Oh, lordy, there’s going to be pressure on Crystal City to get back above .500 next season. If the Hornets can’t get above .500 next season, then it’s going to look like the Great Watershed of October 2021 has run its four-year course and that the Hornets are back to Square One again. Bradley’s Farm is lucky that MSHSAA’s flip-flop rematches of 2024-25 have ended, but it still has a challenging row to plow.
2026’s potential lineup has really nice bookends. Adams won’t wiffle as many wayward passes around by the time he’s a sophomore, and you have to think an O-line led by Gage McPherson, Trent Eisenbeis, and Tristyn Munton can protect him in the pocket sooner or later. The speedster Alex Parham returns for a sophomore year in which he’ll be taking his first rushing carry, but he had a solid year as a WR and special-teams hand for the Hornets.
The new schedule will tell us a lot about Crystal City’s chance to win six-plus games and host playoff rounds at the Sunken Place once more. But we know it’s going to turn into a Small Schools slate again, since there’s been too much anguish (and agreement) over the need to quit competing with St. Francis of Borgia in the strength-of-schedule department. If the Hornets begin to face opponents with similar resources again, TGG thinks they’ll stay healthy and surprise any leftover skeptics next fall.
Photo Credits: Mary Jo Koetting-Nicks, Northwest High School Facebook, Festus R-VI Facebook, St. Pius X Football Facebook