Expectations never diminish at Louisville High School when it comes to football.
It doesn’t matter who the coach is, how many players the team lost or what the weather might be on any given Friday night – it’s a place that demands excellence. That’s why the hire of Tyrone Shorter five years ago was the perfect fit.
Shorter racked up wins and championships at a place built on a hard-nosed mentality at Noxubee County. He didn’t have to instill any of that toughness at LHS, he just came in and has taken things to the next level.
In his first four seasons as head coach, Shorter has a 48-8 record. He won three Class 4A, Region 4 championships and lost just one game in district play. Twice he’s won a state championship including his run to a 14-1 record last year and the team’s 11th title in as many opportunities.
If anything, expectations are even greater this year.
“We’ve just been trying to get bigger and stronger. We have a lot of kids returning. Our biggest focus in the offseason was us and doing the little things to get better,” Shorter said. “The one thing that I do at the end of the season is self-scout. We just wanted to get better and work on us and that’s what we did. We did a lot of camps and 7-on-7 and had great participation. Now it’s here.”
The offense was in a bit of a transition last season as starting quarterback Jace Hudspeth had graduated and sophomore Xavier Hunt was starting for the first time. Hunt played in 12 of the 15 games and had some good moments with 944 passing yards and 10 touchdowns with three more rushing scores.
But a few games into the season, Shorter made a change at quarterback and put in senior Keyarrion Jackson who ran things for most of the way. This season, Shorter has seen Hunt make serious strides and he believes he’s ready for the challenge. With some good talent in the backfield and top receiver Jakevious Goss back on top of an offensive line that grew tremendously, this is a group that is going to be dangerous.
“Offensively, we have seven returning starters and they’re some really good payers. Our strength is our offensive line with all five of those guys back and three more off the bench. We’re excited about Jakevious Goss who is a three-year starter at wide receiver. We’re excited about Cameron Triplett and some young running backs. I think Jaylin Jordan is going to be a big part of things at running back,” Shorter said.
“We’re hoping that our quarterback Xavier Hunt has learned a lot. We’ll go as he goes. He was young last year and had a lot of pressure eon him as a sophomore but I think he’s ready to go.”
On the defensive side of the ball, there was a huge loss up front as defensive end Gabriel Moore graduated and is playing up the road at Mississippi State. The culture in Louisville is unlike most places, however.
There are others that are next in line to do big things on the defensive side of the ball and Shorter isn’t worried about what’s on the way. It’s a unit that should just be next man up to be dominant yet again.
“Losing a stud like Gabriel Moore who is doing great things at Mississippi State, that’s hard to replace. At the same time, we’ve got eight starters returning,” Shorter said. “We lost three key players including two guys in the secondary and that’s our biggest void. We’re excited about our front five and linebacker corp. A lot of those guys played a lot last year and had a great summer. I believe that defense wins championships. We’re going to be solid there and we should be great on special teams.”
The schedule is a gauntlet yet again for the Wildcats but that’s where they want to be. Last year, the team got a massive upset over West Point in game one of the season and took Starkville to the wire. They’ll have both again this year on top of non-conference showdowns against Columbus, Neshoba Central, Noxubee County and Houston.
The district slate is also going to be a grind. The team plays Kosiuscko and adds massive matchups with Caledonia, Mendenhall and Greenwood in a restructured conference. The mindset doesn’t change for Shorter – he still believes his team is the one to beat. They just have to take it again this year and never have a week left for granted.
“There’s no doubt that we should have a chance to win it again this year but we’ve got to do our job. I believe that the tough teams that we play will prepare us for our district and the playoffs,” Shorter said. “Our district is tough and everybody that we played last year in the playoffs are in our district. But if you’re going to compete for championships, you have to play tough. We’re ready for the challenge.”
