HSFT Stop #15: Bruce

BRUCE, Miss. (WCBI) — Bruce football entered last season looking for its first winning record in over a decade. Head coach Chuck Darbonne joined the program and immediately brought a different mentality to the Trojans leading to a 6-5 season.

“When he first came in he told us we were going to win,” senior athlete Ashton Pierce said. “There wasn’t any we need to win it was we are going to win.”

One thing stood out about Darbonne’s coaching style more than anything else.

“It was this energy, he came onto the field, I remember meeting him myself and it was something different we had never worked with before and it was just something he had that we liked,” senior wide receiver Jarrett Bowling said.

From the outside looking in it seemed like Bruce came out of nowhere but Darbonne knew this group had what it takes to be successful.

“It was just building the confidence,” Darbonne said. “I knew what these guys had in them and then they had to just see it on a Friday night in front of everybody for them to actually believe it.”

Bruce won just four total games the past three seasons combined, the Trojans got out to a 5-1 start in 2023. All of the hard work was finally paying off.

“Everyone was so happy and we couldn’t contain our excitement,” junior right tackle Kahdamien Jones said. “After winning our first game we came back here and just started to shout out.”

The Trojans are having to replace tons of production from last years squad but the team is confident some of the younger players will fill their shoes.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year but we’ve got some new guys out here ready to pick up the slack.”

Now that this team knows what it is like to win, they want to build on the success. The key to doing so is keeping the same mindset they had last season.

“They had not had much success in their high school career so I think they were dead set that they were going to have success so just keeping that hungry mentality that we are going to get better every day.”

Bruce kicks off the season on the road against South Pontotoc.