#HSFT17: Stop No. 32 – Houston Hilltoppers

HOUSTON, Miss. (WCBI) — In some ways, Houston has been punching above their weight for the last 8 years.

The Hilltoppers made the jump to 4A back in 2009 and became a perennial force on the gridiron in recent years. But the Toppers are dropping down back to 3A, and they’re eager to go up against new foes.

“That kind of scares me also,” head coach Ty Hardin said about seeing new opponents. “We’ve been in the SEC West the last 10 years. Now, we’re going down to 3A. In the past, we’ve been a 4A team with 2A, 3A depth. We’re excited for something different.”

“After facing Noxubee for the last 3 years, it showed me a lot and the other guys too,” senior Urriah Shephard said. “They can take it and use it on the next level.”

There had been a stretch where Houston made the playoffs just twice in a decade.

Times have changed in Chickasaw County as the Hilltoppers are not only making the playoffs but they’re winning in the playoffs. It’s all been a part of the changing culture with head coach Ty Hardin.

“It’s all about the family we’ve made,” senior Brandon Samuell said. “We’ve made a lot of changes. We’ve become a brotherhood on this team.”

“It just hit me that as a young guy, I made a decision that I want to change this program doing extra work or helping a younger guy do something,” Shephard said.

“We had a difficult time at first,” Hardin said about building the culture of his team. “The expectation of winning is here. The next level is what we want to get to.”

And that next level is winning a State Championship.

Houston got a taste for success on the diamond with their baseball program winning a Title in 2016 and now the football program wants their own time in the Title spotlight.

“We lost a whole lot of good players last year,” senior Colton Foster said. “Lot of people will have to step up and it’ll depend on how we play.”

“It’s possible we should win a Championship in 3A since we were one of the smallest teams in 4A,” senior Zykiel Virges said. “I’m looking forward to a big season.”

“We want to go for a district championship first,” coach Hardin said. “I could count how many times that’s happened on my hand here at Houston. We want to win the North then the next step is to win a State Championship.”

Houston will kickoff their grueling non division schedule at home versus Pontotoc before three straight road games at Calhoun City, New Hope and Itawamba AHS.