2015 High School Football Tour – Stop #53: Eupora

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EUPORA, Miss. (WCBI) — A new coach will usher in the new Eagle era at Eupora.

But he’s not new to those at Eupora.

Stephen Edwards takes over for Junior Graham as he gets set to return to his old stomping grounds as the head coach.

“I was here for 15 years as an assistant under Coach Graham, Coach Pittman and Coach Pogue,” coach Edwards said. “I’m familiar with the area. I graduated from here. We have the same expectations as they did when I was an assistant when Coach Graham was the head coach here is to play hard, play tough and win a lot more than we lose.”

One of the biggest tasks for coach Edwards this season will be replacing the senior class that won 39 games in 4 years.

It’s a relatively young team that Edwards takes over but they’re full of energy and most importantly they are full of confidence.

“I like this team,” senior Victor Goldman said. “We’re very competitive. I think we’ll be pretty good. We still have a lot of work to do.”

“We lost a lot of seniors last year,” Edwards said. “You had an 1,100 yard rusher in Lamontae Salley. We have a lot of competition though. We have 2 or 3 running backs that will fight for starting job. We have 3 quarterbacks fighting for the starting job. We have 28 to 30 kids fighting for 11 spots on offense and defense.”

For Eupora, the expectations are still very high even without the seniors that departed.

The Eagles have been arguably the most consistently dominant team since the turn of the millennium, winning eight or more games in 13 of 15 seasons, with 11 of those years turning out double digit win totals.

With all that said, don’t tell the Eagles to shoot low in the new season. They want to go for it all.

“We’re a young team but we’re very competitive and we keep each other in check,” senior Lamarcus Caradine said. “We’re planning on  making it all the way this year.”

“I think we’re really competitive,” senior Jack Smith said. “We’ve been working hard all summer. I think we’ll be pretty good. Just compete and try to make it far in the playoffs, maybe make it to State.”

Eupora will start the season on the road at Water Valley then return home to host French Camp and Smithville in back to back weeks.