There are accolades that are more important than winning championship games. One of those is the credit for building and maintaining an identity fans can count on throughout the years, whether that goes for a team, a neighborhood, or a region. Winning a title doesn’t count for very much if your team stinks at football in years to follow – it makes the one lonely trophy seem to be The Greatest Fluke on Earth. Fans remember the 1990s Buffalo Bills, even though they lost so many Super Bowls in a row. Super Bowl victors who fell back into the cellar aren’t as cherished as QB Jim Kelly’s bridesmaids.
That’s a hard argument to make in the modern sports world, though! You can’t brag on 1990s Buffalo at Buffalo Wild Wings without someone standing up and shouting “RINGS!”. It takes a lot of patience, but every so often, you get to see the identity theme rise above all trophy cases.
Jefferson County pigskin has a new characteristic that’s worth way more than a Show-Me Bowl championship. In fact, it’s a close call as to whether you’d trade it away to improve on the Dirty Dozen’s 0-5 state championship game record. What is the county’s special claim-to-fame in Friday Night Lights? You probably already know – you just have to think about it.
Jeff County has THE ROAD. The short state road known as Highway A that takes about 15 minutes to drive from one end to the other. Hillsboro is on one end of Highway A. Festus and St. Pius X are on the other end. In case anyone’s counting, those are the teams from a single solitary road in JeffCo who have reached the Show-Me Bowl in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Can we think of another road in Missouri that has three Show-Me Bowl teams on it?! Not an Interstate highway, like the I-64 or I-55 corridors, but a road that you can teach your teenager to drive on and still make it back in time for NFL Today. Wow, it may be that the Hillsboro-Festus state road is the only such road in the Tri-States, because state championship contenders tend to soak up all the best talent from a several-mile radius around their school. Nixa doesn’t have two championship runner-up neighbors just up the street. Kansas City and Chicago don’t have THE ROAD. We do!
It will be hard for Mississippi Conference guests to conquer either end of the road in 2026. Festus appears to have another potential state-playoff contender on its hands. Hillsboro, by all accounts, could be boasting its meanest, leanest, and deepest roster since the 2023 squad took its turn against Kearney in Class 4’s title tilt. In case out-of-conference opponents think they’ve got it easier versus DeSoto or Windsor, the DHS Dragons are up-and-coming, and WHS may not be far behind.
The Geek has predicted five-team fights in the Mississippi for so long that he’s afraid he’s jinxed it. But there’s no doubt that 2026 could be the year when all five schools are well above-average on the gridiron. North County, the “interloper” from far southwest of Highway A, has made a “Sunday legacy” coaching hire by bringing in Wyatt Compton, the locally-famous sibling of nationally famous Will Compton. He’s the hand-picked successor to Brian Jones.
North County’s underclassmen were terrific in the Varsity Raiders’ 2025 District Championship Game loss to the Festus Tigers. How will our four teams handle the wear-and-tear of a different “road” if the conference is a beast this autumn?
DeSoto Dragons: Five Bigs Away from the Watershed
The Gridiron Geek is a hypocrite when it comes to Varsity players’ measurables. Maybe it’s a case of thinking that every title-worthy High School team should be comparable to an NCAA lineup in some aspects … as if Chillicothe and Webb City never won a state championship with pointedly not-college traits in their depth charts. There are many ways to succeed in Friday Night Lights. What we can say for sure, though, is that THE ROAD is a place where only big, physical teams can drive ahead. DeSoto’s revival of 2023-25 has had it all exceot one thing – the necessary size and muscle in the middle.
The bookends continue to improve at Joachim Junction. QB Cannon Kisner went from a local All-Name Team starter to a Jefferson County All-Star as a running quarterback in his sophomore season, leading the Dragons with 158 rushing yards while manufacturing a landmark 26-21 win over the Hillsboro Hawks last October 10th. The Barton brothers, Caleb and Collin, will be a force to reckon with on DeSoto’s defense. Junior RB Damian “The Omen” Pogue’s rookie card is trending.
But the Dragons were outmuscled at several key moments in last season, including Freeburg’s revenge-romp in Week 1, Potosi’s 40-14 embarrassment of DeSoto in Week 7, and, of course, DHS’s 21-6 defeat to North County in the District Quarterfinals. It wasn’t that the Bartons or their first-string teammates were always getting outmuscled – it was more that the contingent’s lack of substitutes who were big enough to take the bruising left a talented D-line marooned. There was going to be no way that DeSoto’s small crew of seasoned big men could fight off Hillsboro’s offense one week, then lay pancakes on opposing defenses for four frames in the next game. DeSoto still needs an infusion of beef on the hoof.
There are signs that the Bartons have some help up front this summer. Four sophomores from a highly-touted DHS Class of 2029 are linemen, including the underclass center Tucker Barnett, who was already at a decent “center size” of 5’10” and nearly 200 pounds when enrolling at DeSoto High. The 6’2” Brian Bell looks like a hefty athlete with room to fill out.
If DeSoto’s offensive line has enough bone girth at all five spots, a good blocking year could spring Kisner into more daylight than fans have thought possible. Kisner can be another Blake Goddard in DeSoto’s “Graduated Wing-T,” although he’ll be one who sticks around in Jefferson County. Plus, it won’t be hard to tell if the DeSoto offense gets going, because DHS’s schedule of 2026 includes many opponents who could get their socks knocked off by a bigger, stronger DeSoto squad.
Head coach Russ Schmidt’s first fully negotiated schedule as DeSoto’s CEO is a surprise. It’s not a surprise because it’s different. It’s a surprise because it’s more-or-less exactly the same schedule the Dragons have been playing, a slate welcoming four teams from the Quad County Conference, plus Fredericktown in another out-of-conference tilt.
Schmidt has always felt that a team had to play as a steep underdog several times in the regular season, to get the hang of playoff-level combat prior to Halloween. By letting DeSoto’s schedule remain the same as it was, Schmidt is eschewing that method in favor of a more practical idea. The HC was said to clash with the former Festus AD Eric Allen – never The Geek’s preferred choice in a role Allen held for 96 tumultuous seasons – over the fact that Schmidt’s Festus Tigers played so many substantially larger programs, doing well just to arrive at 5-4. Schmidt can’t fight with himself over the DeSoto pigskin schedule, but he does recognize that Class 4, District 1 is a Final Four pipeline, and seeding #1 gets you on the path.
Kisner’s reinforced team could potentially sweep through its OOC games 5-0, while faring as well as 3-1 in Mississippi Conference play. It might give DeSoto a chance to seed above Festus and Hillsboro’s squads, who’ll be facing rivals like Hannibal and Hazelwood East respectively. That would make an interesting wrinkle in the C4D1 championship race.
Festus Tigers: New Faces are Key to Championship Offense
The Festus Tigers want to make sweet music in 2026, but not as an encore to 2025’s glory. Each team at FHS is encouraged to create its own legacy. This preseason has offered clues to what R-6’s latest lineup thinks it can become by November.
Midmeadow Lane is letting phases like “title hunt” slip to reporters in interviews, a new leaf for a school that doesn’t like to tout its championship chances until well after the leaves have turned. Festus administrators are fond of a roster which is built around four-year contributors such as Kamden Yates in the backfield, and big man Carson Grass in the trenches.
Why not project some confidence in the most consistent contender Festus High has ever had? Senior QB Parker Perry, coming off an All-State year in which his pass-completion rate of 71.1% led the STL Metro, led Jamboree Friday by tossing a 40-yard TD strike to senior TE Braydon Wilkes fewer than 5:00 into the event at Tiger Stadium. The 6’1” Perry goes into this season even healthier than last year’s, when his quick-footed scrambling and accuracy on the rollout was already giving defenses fits.
But there remain serious questions about this year’s Tigers. The list of proven weapons on offense is illustrious, but small, including only Perry, Drinen, Yates, Wilkes, and junior WR Dylan Clifton. That’s four receivers who can rock and roll in 2:00 situations, for sure, but what happens when the boys need to run the rock 12 times in a row? Will a running back arrive who can liberate Yates from wear-and-tear up the gut, to let Perry have an All-Star set of downfield weapons?
If St. Pius Lancers head coach Frank Ray is known as the Dirty Dozen’s “quarterback whisperer” due to QB Evan Eckrich’s exceptional in-season upswing last fall, and Northwest’s skipper Scott Gerling is the “defense guru” who overcame average pass-rushing and a Turnover Chain bought at Five And Below to make the Lions into a brick wall, then Festus coach A.J. Ofodile is the Depth Chart Demigod, the guy who can make supernatural things happen when his lineup could use help someplace. Ofodile builds lineups like Paris Saint-Germain builds attacks. It’s remarkable, and it keeps on happening.
Look no further than the Black & Gold offensive backfield, where Yates’ status as the returning RB1 has the defects of its virtues. You have to hand Kamden the bean and let him score – he’s way too good to be part of an “Andy Reid” backfield by committee. But he’s also too good elsewhere not to be utilized all over the place, and only healthy legs make great defensive backs. If Yates’ touches were exhausted by 200+ carries and 1500+ rushing yards in the regular season, the Tigers would potentially miss out on #3’s value as a receiver and a DB. If he gets hurt pushing the pile on 4th down, that’s bad juju.
Abracadabra – as of August the Tigers’ offensive backfield isn’t Kamden-Yates-and-nobody. It’s Thunder and Lightning. Ofodile made the logical call to pick out junior All-Star linebacker Aiden Schirmer as an Iron Man who could do what his brother Mason Schirmer did two seasons ago, co-quarterbacking the defense while also playing the role of a bludgeoning, power running back in short-yardage situations. By all accounts, Schirmer was impressive with the pigskin in hand in training camp. But his family legacy makes the Schirmer-Yates combination feel like a surefire success this autumn.
Chuck Berry said of Julian Lennon, “Ain’t he like his Paw???” If Aiden is anything like his big brother as a ballcarrier for Black & Gold, then “Ain’t he like his Bro!” will be a rallying cry at FHS when Schirmer smashes through for a long run.
Then there’s 2026’s offensive line change, prior to which Mississippi Magazine can confirm that Coach O walked out to the 50-yard line on a quiet June evening, traced a magic rune in the air, and – PRESTO! – The Statue of Liberty disappeared. No, really, a new “Statue” has arrived on the OL, one which could make this fall’s Varsity Tigers even more dynamic.
The OL’s new heavy is Keegan Womack, a 6’3” “late-born sophomore” who is already 16 years old and 235 pounds according to his Boys Basketball profile. Newcomers from the basketball squad’s frontcourt are usually “project” Tight End prospects, but remember how good Arhmad Branch turned out to be? Ofodile thinks he could turn that trick again utilizing Womack, who Midmeadow Lane’s skipper calls the best offensive-line prospect he’s seen in years. If he proves a natural fit alongside R-6’s long-term blockers like Carson Grass and Eli Tilley, the Tigers could average over 250 pounds and over 6’1” between the hash-marks. Festus High doesn’t want to copy Kearney’s style, but that’s comparable to Kearney’s ‘23 offensive line, a contingent of long, mobile maulers who can gallop to the edge. Thunder and Lightning’s OL could make it rain pancakes.
Festus’ lineup expansion could vicariously help the defense and special teams most of all. The Geek felt sure that the senior Pinkston would be slated as an Iron Man at OT-DE this year, due to his experience, and because he’d be terrific at it. But if the Tigers have a dedicated OL of five guys who only serve fries on defense, that leaves Pinkston as a potential every-down dynamo at defensive end. If Eli Tilley is effective as a lone Iron Man OT-DT, 6’3”, 220 lb. junior Beau Canaday can have a breakout season playing opposite Antonio. Black & Gold’s vast contingent of 200-220 pound linebackers makes an outstanding nucleus for the special teams, potentially helping make up for PK Luke Wacker’s graduation.
If the county’s top team has an Achilles Heel, it’s that 2026’s schedule is too tough to allow for many comfortable situations in which the all-important newcomers on offense can be worked in. Perry may have to rely on Yates, Wilkes, and Drinen for at least 70% of the team’s touches if the Tigers are having problems defeating a regular-season opponent. By the looks of the schedule, the Varsity Tigers are going to have trouble with a full handful of rivals, especially some of the less-familiar ones.
Week 1 opponent Rockwood Summit is a tremendous team that fought bravely against the Eureka Wildcats in 2025’s postseason. The Gridiron Geek needs more time to think about his Fenton-at-Festus prediction for this Friday night.
Hillsboro Hawks: Let’s Get Back to the Old School, Shall We?
JeffCo sports media is off to a fantastic start covering the Dirty Dozen this year. You’ve got to step up your game to report on THE ROAD. Regional Radio is back – in some form. Russell Korando’s preseason scoops in the JCL have proven to be more illustrative than ever. Mississippi Magazine is getting sponsored by the coolest artists and the chillest restaurant in town. We’re also blessed that the success of our pigskin has made even the Jamboree into a sought-after live TV beat. Live Stream STL contributed two video teams to the corps of several crews who streamed JeffCo’s landmark Jamboree Friday.
The Geek must say, though, that the TV announcers from last Friday evening made watching our Jamborees a little bit … trippy. The announcers included new faces, all relaxed and polished pros, some of whom showed up in NFL gear and U.S. Soccer badges, which was awesome. But they lacked product knowledge on many of Live Stream STL’s home teams. It’s one thing not to get players’ numbers down in a Jamboree, but we’re talking about basics here. Once, when the Seckman Jaguars took the field, one presumably new-to-the-region announcer said, “We will call these guys The Opposing Team.”
Hillsboro was the happy exception. The Live Stream STL call not only recognized the hosts of 2026’s Hillsboro Jamboree, they knew the kids, and they called runs and passes by name! “There goes senior Trey Zimmerly on another speedy run,” the announcer said. Hurrah! Is it a good omen that the 2026 Hillsboro Hawks refused to be ignored this training camp, inspiring folks to get to know them who were otherwise busy watching the Columbus Crew play New York City FC?
In a preseason of five-plus exceptional lineups and only voodoo to make predictions with, Mississippi Magazine can think of worse reasons to tout the Blue & White this year. When a team begins finding its identity again, the reporter searches for any cause to brag on their chances. Like when an NFL club signs a Hall-of-Fame caliber QB, making Stephen A. Smith say, “I like their, uhh, nickel package on defense, too.” The irony of Zimmerly and senior QB Aiden Fleming’s praise from the Jamboree is that you didn’t really need to know who had the ball to see that Hillsboro is going power-first with its new offense. As soon as The Geek saw how Zimmerly (and the OL) were attacking the line-of-scrimmage, he said, “Ahh, HILLSBORO!” and sat back in his chair, content that Leon Hall is about to be racking up a lot of rushing yards.
The Hawks were already getting back to the ground-and-pound late last season. Senior lineman Grant Sucharski’s blocking corps was slowly coming around when Zimmerly and now-sophomore Jadyn Rice combined to rush for 154 yards in Hillsboro’s 35-21 playoff victory over the rehabilitated Sikeston Bulldogs, letting former QB Braxton Chazelle complete 12 passes on merely 18 attempts from a clean pocket. Rice made Chow Mein out of more than one rival defense as a dual-threat RB and receiving threat, despite measuring only 5’7” tall in his freshman campaign. If Hillsboro’s running attack is as dynamite as it could be in 2026, Fleming may be deadly via the play-action, having gone an accurate 21-of-33 in limited Varsity duty.
Standout WR-DB Auston Ross is going into his senior year, which is where Hillsboro’s new lineup gets really interesting. You’ve got the pieces in place up front, in the offensive backfield, and at wide receiver. Meanwhile, there’s Ross to lead what’s potentially the best collection of linebackers and defensive backs that Leon Hall has sent forth since that fateful autumn of three years ago. Auston’s brother Preston, just one year his “junior,” was all over the place for the Hawks last campaign, making 69 tackles while snagging four takeaways. 6’1” and 230-pound senior linebacker Landon Gonzales returns having led the ‘25 Hawks in sacks, while staying in the action as an Iron Man contributor for the offense.
Hillsboro’s dilemmas haven’t totally gone away. The Hawks have to replace the All-Star boot of graduated Caleb Arnold, putting pressure on a special-teams unit that has often shined under HC Bill Sucharski. Critics have also charged that Sucharski’s coaching staff gets its team too fired up, too in-shape, and too rarin’ to play in summer games, saying that Hillsboro has nothing left to give in November, after punching itself out in the early-going. But this season, The Geek believes that the Hillsboro Hawks’ fanatical preseason training and full readiness for Week 1 could pay off in spades. Opponents will face a faster, leaner, and meaner HHS in the open field, and the Hawks want to prove it right away.
It would be great to report that Hillsboro will get off to a flying start with an unbeaten run. The chances of that may depend on whether Hazelwood East, the Varsity Hawks’ foe in Week 2, is as nightmarish to play against as it showed to be in 2025. While we wait impatiently for word on whether Hazelwood East is handing out Bus Loop Burgers coupons looking like a Godzilla at the season’s start, you can rest assured that Leon Hall is a consensus favorite to begin 1-0 against Kennett.
Windsor Owls: Big, Fast, Talented, and Trying to Believe
Speaking of having the pieces all in place, the Windsor Owls finally look like a semblance of a complete team this preseason. Junior starting QB Jett Black had every bit as prolific of a debut season as Kisner, at least when you count in Black’s reads, pitches, and laterals that sprang the Owls’ Flexbone offense for close to 4000 combined yards, 3500 of them on the ground. Senior running back Jack Kuda is among the Dirty Dozen’s most exciting returning rushers. Windsor’s growing corps of two-way bigs on the offensive and defensive line is led by the 6’2” senior bruisers Brandon Mahone and Chase Walker.
There’s no shame in being once-bitten, twice-shy on the Albino Birds’ chances in 2026, though. Windsor has fooled us with too many solid-on-paper rosters that turned out to be Swiss Cheese against Class 4, Class 3, Class 2, and even Class 1. It’s easy to say that it’s a matter of low confidence among the student-athletes, but heck, Black’s last lineup had to feel plenty confident after beating a strong Herculaneum team in Week 1, then setting program records in a 66-26 thrashing of the Clayton Greyhounds in Week 4 to move to 3-1. But as has so often been the case, it didn’t matter that Windsor played its following six games with the same 300-pounders blocking for the same fast rushers. The Owls found their Rock Creek waterline again in the middle of fall, surrendering 28 opposing touchdowns while going 1-5 the rest of the way.
It’s like when you take an NCAA video game and set the level to “Rookie.” Your rival Alabama Crimson Tide takes the field, and they totally look the part! They’re huge, they run fast, and they butt heads enthusiastically after the simplest plays in warm-ups. But once the game begins, you can knock them all backwards with easy forearm-shivers, and run for 500 yards. (Kansas was a real-life example of this phenomenon in the 2010s.) Windsor High has been like that “Level Down” team habitually, which is good because you can see they have the material … but bad because the material doesn’t matter.
Head coach Lee Freeman has neglected to upload 2026 schedules at MSHSAA and STLToday, as of only a few days prior to Week 1’s game against the Jefferson Blue Jays. The Geek, however, thinks it’s because Freeman is distracted with good news. It probably took what felt like forever to upload Windsor’s numerous new roster, featuring 25 upperclassmen alongside at least 20 sophomores, by itself. Friday night’s Jamboree hosted a prestigious set of six schools from three conferences.
Some of Windsor’s upcoming foes could be outmuscled and outclassed, such as Fredericktown, while others such as Saxony Lutheran (IL) should be reasonably tough to beat. Festus and Hillsboro, and probably DeSoto, will be monumentally hard to beat. How can the Varsity Owls get off the “Elevator” of easy wins and blowout losses to become more of a factor this year?
The best advice for Freeman could be to load up 2026’s defense as much as possible. Pretend you’re Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, and that the offense is your “FA Cup lineup” and the defense is your last-round-of-the-Premiership lineup. WHS has to play better defense to give itself a chance. What’s more, the offense can score TDs regardless.
The Geek submits that if a record-setting offense’s lineup is culled out to give Walker, Mahone, or alternative big men 24:00 turns as defense specialists (who get to rest two-thirds of the time), Black’s offense is talented enough to take care of itself. Flexbone teams who can rock a defense are the secret sauce to winning in Midwestern pigskin, because they are unlike “The Citadel” in the sense that their offenses aren’t under pressure to score on every possession against a good team. When the Windsor Owls are pressured to score all the time, Black’s devilish pitches and improvisations become a double-edged weapon. You’re always one forced toss and fumble away from an opposing scoop-6 and a negative 14-point swing.
What if Windsor isn’t pressured to score all the time? What if the score is “Hillsboro 14, Windsor 14” to begin the fourth quarter, and the Owls know they can advance a drive 40 yards, punt the Hawks deep, and still feel confident that they’ll win? THAT kind of revelation could start giving opposing coaches nightmares about Windsor’s potential for ball-control, rather than thinking it’s cute. It’s worth a receiver getting 0 touches because he’s focused on picking-off passes at CB.
The less pressure Black is under on every snap, the more prolific year that he and Kuda are about to have with the ball. Once the Owls host the Jefferson Blue Jays’ revamped offense in Imperial this Friday, we’ll have a better idea of whether the Windsor offense is about to carry the campaign again, or whether Black will get more chances to score winning TDs.
Photo Credits: DeSoto Dragons and Windsor Owls HUDL, Blackcat Blitz, Festus R-6 Facebook