HSFT18: Stop #56 – Saltillo

Saltillo, Miss. (WCBI) — It’s a new year and a new Saltillo football team.

One of the biggest changes in eight years was a new head coach: Ryan Summers.

“They have a new offense to learn,” Head Coach Ryan Summers said. “Made some changes on defense so we’re learning that. They’ve done a really good job in the off-season handling all those.”

Adjusting for the Tigers has been the summer challenge.

Now as they move through fall camp they feel all set to go.

“I think they’re ready,” Summers said. “You know we have that discussion in the office a lot. How close are we? Where are the kids minds? Mentally they’re ready to play somebody else. Being able to handle the mental aspects of the game we talk a lot about that. Handling adversity, the mental toughness side of it. I think they’re ready for that.”

“Expecting big things from this team,” senior QB Jamiek Murphy said. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work this summer and hope it all pays off. This is my last year with my brothers. Its been a long time coming and it’s finally here.”

“Looking forward to going out there with my brothers every day and try to win a football game and to go to the next level,” senior LB Jamarcus Smith said.

Coach Summers hasn’t been taking it easy on this Tigers team.

Making sure the practices have been physical enough to compete in a tough 5A division.

“I think the practices have been a little more challenging than what they’ve been used to,
Summers said. “We have a lot of older guys that are going to have to step up and play who haven’t played yet. So I thought it was necessary for those guys to kind of be pushed more than what they have. Simply because they’re going to be thrown into the fire so quickly they have to be ready from the first game on. Being worried about who we’re playing, you know, we don’t worry about that. We just worry about being able to compete. Being mentality tough enough to handle it if things go wrong and overcome those things.”

Even though practices have been tough Saltillo has nothing but appreciation for their coaches.

“It’s awesome they’re amazing coaches,” Smith said. “We got two good ones. We got a good offensive coordinator and a good quarterback coach here and it’s just perfect.”

Saltillo kicks the 2018 season off against North Pontotoc on August 17th.