It’s easy to get deceived by those preseason training-camp clips and interviews Regional Radio does so well. TGG has seen Jamboree rosters with enough corny rah-rah spirit to start a polo club, only for the team to look pitiful when the real whistles sound. Hillsboro appeared to be a rag-tag group in 2018’s training camp footage, only for the Varsity Hawks to find some matching jerseys to finally put on and win the next 3 out of 4 Mississippi titles. The Chaffee Red Devils get an annual summer feature in SEMOBall in which the squad speaks about “taking no prisoners” and hitting everybody hard. Chaffee may indeed eschew prisoners and hit very hard, but the school is still likely to find its waterline and lose by an average of 21 points. You’ve got to overlook the talk and the bluster.
But there’s reason to pay extra close attention to any noise coming out of Fox High School this August. The Fox Warriors were a marvelous team in 2020, arguably playing the best pure football of any Jefferson County team in a generation, and coming within a few plays of making an historic Show-Me Bowl appearance. Last season’s Red & White got off to a promising start in spite of having graduated star QB Brock Inman and a host of difference-making seniors, and while a series of close calls tested the Arnold roster’s patience, it appeared that Fox’s win-loss record would naturally improve as the year went on.
Instead, the opposite happened. Fox’s moxie that had produced a classic late-season scrum with Seckman faded away as the leaves continued to turn, thanks in part to Ladue stamping the Warriors’ dull District seed in ink with a 40-7 thrashing in Week 9. Fox went on to lose to yet another average Mehlville team in the opening District game, as the Warriors clearly weren’t up to facing another Goliath in Jackson High on a cold night.
Head coach Brent Tinker has made no bones about why FHS won 3 games in 2021 after losing only 2 times in 2020. The ’21 Warriors struggled to show up to class on time and earn strong enough grades to maintain the previous squad’s sparkling off-the-field reputation, and some upperclassmen were even suspended prior to the playoff loss in October. As the skipper told Kevin Kraus of the Jefferson County Leader this summer, talent wasn’t the problem on a team that fought Ladue bravely for 2 quarters and Seckman for 4. Yet there’s nothing quite so ugly as a Flexbone-option team that isn’t playing at 100% and executing with precision.
The Geek has intimate knowledge of a few recent “bad apple” teams, or at least local squads on which a few bad Jonathans spoiled everything for Tom, Dick, and Harry. Festus High needed a house-cleaning of sorts following the 2015 roster’s hijinks, which also followed a series of frustrating rivalry-losses. Herculaneum’s misadventures years prior with star RB Dustin Johnson are an even better example of how just a single disenchanted, unmotivated player can impact an entire dressing room’s state of mind. Johnson, his ego swelled by a nice performance against Valle University in 2012, refused to participate in indoor drills the next season – though such drills are a fact of life for student-athletes from Truman State to Tuscaloosa – and the resulting internal controversy made the team feel alienated from its so-called “leader” on the gridiron.
Former QB Grant Gibson is missing from the Fox facility as of 2022, but we shouldn’t be quick to read Gibson’s transfer as a “ringleader” of delinquents going away in protest of the new locker room. Gibson was among the team’s steadiest contributors, rushed for nearly 8 yards-per-carry in the ill-fated playoff bid, and was not among the sanctioned or suspended players on the ’21 roster as far as Mississippi Magazine understands. Gibson’s transfer could be a natural product of circumstances, or like a lot of “option” quarterbacks, he might have grown tired of running and pitching the ball almost exclusively. There hasn’t yet been anyone to come along who can replace Brock Inman’s speed and mastery behind center, and while probable stop-gap QB Dylan Stevens may be inexperienced for a senior at the position, his and other candidates’ 2022 seasons could help to expedite that process without Gibson soaking-up snaps.
“Process” will be the key concept as Fox goes into its next 2 autumns. There’s a lot to like about this season’s lineup, including senior Nik Norden’s outstanding LB corps, sophomore Cameron Underwood as an interesting mix-up option at multiple positions on offense, and – Lord willing – potentially better practices that lead to an improved effort under Friday Night Lights. Fox High School, after all, should be able to improve more in practice than other Jefferson County teams due to the school’s prodigious enrollment numbers, and the resulting number of “fun”-based recruits who’re happy to play on the scout team in lieu of starring in another sport. But scout-team efficiency is among the things that suffer when a team slips in the classroom and in morale. Fox’s new team-leadership, like the Festus boys in 2018, will carry the extra burden of manufacturing a new outlook and home-field spirit while plowing through a difficult schedule.
The schedule of ’22 is the biggest reason why Tinker has been careful to manage expectations. Fox’s opening night match with Mehlville could be as deceptive as the starting gates of Wengen’s famous ski course, the gentle slope that comes before a chicane that’s sent 1000s of downhillers hurtling over hill and dale. Lafayette will host and most likely defeat the Fox Warriors in Week 2, followed by the Red & White’s challenging follow-up road trip to Lindbergh. At least it’s a shorter bus ride without the patented St. Charles bumps and a scary bridge over the Missouri, but even a sweet homecoming vs Ritenour in Week 4 won’t stop the hurtin’ from Seckman’s absolutely loaded squad when the Jaguars visit the water-tower in late September.
Thankfully, Fox’s schedule of giants in October (Poplar Bluff, Ladue) is interspersed with a couple of vulnerable teams in Hazelwood West and Parkway South. How the Warriors fare in the team’s winnable games, following what’s bound to be some hard-knocks taken on the chin before midseason, will tell an awful lot about whether the lineup’s mental toughness is on-par with Fox teams of the recent past, starting with a Week 1 scrum that will feel like a “Fox vs Mehlville Part II” movie to students hoping for redemption.
As “Boy Scout” as it sounds, it’ll depend a lot on how the Fox boys do in Geometry II.