#HSFT21 Stop #50: New Hope Trojans
COLUMBUS, Miss (WCBI)- The Trojans are coming off a season to forget. They won just two games in 2020. Now, they have a new man running things. After spending the last three seasons as New Hope’s defensive coordinator, Seth Stillman was promoted to head coach in January.
“The kids have been great,” Stillman said. “They’re buying into what we’re trying to do. The changes we’re trying to make and the things we’re trying to build off of.”
Stillman played for the most successful team in New Hope history in 2009. The Trojans won 11 games that year. He’s trying to incorporate that team’s mindset into this year’s group.
“If we play harder than the other team on Friday we will win 90% of the games we play,” Stillman said. “This is high school, it’s not the NFL. If we outwork everyone we have a great chance to win regardless of whatever else happens.”
“I think that we are developing in the pass game and we really don’t have to run it as much as we used to,” senior QB Ty Crowell said.
The secondary will be the strength of New Hope’s team this year.
“We have a lot of trust in those guys on the back end. Playing different coverages, getting in and out of those coverages based on formations. Playing man-to-man whenever we want will give us a lot of opportunities up front. Just things we haven’t been able to do in the past,” Stillman said.
“That’s our oldest group. Lot of them returning back,” senior CB J’Lynn Topps said. “They have a lot of experience and for some it was their first time going out there so now that they’re coming back they’ll be able to be free and be themselves”.
Stillman says it takes a special person to be able to lead New Hope to success.
“It gets a really bad rap,” Stillman said. “A lot of people say you can’t be successful here because they had a lot of bad years and were really bad before Michael Bradley was here in 2006 and haven’t had a ton of success since he left. People say you can’t be successful here and it takes someone who is from here that has a love for the place and if you have that I just know you can be”.
New Hope’s season gets started September 3rd at home against Shannon.
