#HSFT21 Stop #57 – West Point Green Wave

“Well, there’s always pressure,” head coach Chris Chambless said. “You’re at West Point.”

After falling just short of winning a fifth consecutive state championship, you would think that the pressure to win would be off of West Point, but that isn’t the Green Wave way.

“The drive for five was never the pressure,” senior running back Cameron Young said. “It’s always pressure to win a championship. That’s the goal.”

Despite the loss to West Jones, nothing has changed. No matter who you talk to or where you go in the town, the expectations remain the same. Win.

“That’s what we love about it around here,” Chambless explained.  “Our community expects us to win. Our administration expects us to win. They expect us to win the right way.”

“Down here, it’s football,” senior linebacker Keon Cunningham said. “That’s what we do. We’ll come back harder.”

The taste of losing didn’t sit well with the Greenies. Coach Chambless notes that his team is playing with a chip on its shoulder. Headlining the redemption tour are the seniors.

“We work hard every year,” Chambless said. “This year it just seems like they are putting forth a little more effort. Being here on time every day, ready to go to work. They are trying to avenge themselves from this past year. Our seniors are doing a great job of leading the team.”

“The seniors keep the team together,” Cunningham said. “Like Coach Chambless says all the time, ‘we go as the seniors go, so we’re going to lead.’

If there’s one thing we know about West Point, they will run the football. Fortunately for the Green Wave, they return one of the more dynamic play-makers in the area, senior running back Cameron Young.

“He’s done an excellent job,” Chambless said. “He was a two thousand-yard rusher-a returning starter but also a returning all-state kid. He’s doing a great job for us.”

“It’s a team thing,” Young said. “I’m going to do what I did last year even more, but my teammates will have my back to the same way I’ll have theirs.”

“I know Cam, Shawn, all those guys,” Cunningham said. “They will show out. I know they will put on.”

This senior class is battle-tested-dating back to freshman year with a combined record of 39 wins and six losses. Now, the guys get one more opportunity to close out their careers on a high note.

“To have those guys back together to try to finish what we couldn’t last year, that’s going to be special,” Chambless said.

“It’s our culture,” Cunningham explained. “This is what we do. This is West Point. We’re football. If we’re nothing else, we’re football.”