Simmons Says - Being Pioneers
Everything started with a snap that surprised me Sunday afternoon.
For one, I rarely snap anybody, so any of them are a surprise. More importantly, once I saw the content, I was just shocked.
It was a picture of a bunch of kids from the WCMS football team working on their own. The young Pioneers had called an impromptu practice over Labor Day weekend, knowing Tuesday’s upcoming day game against Coffee County is going to be a battle and wanting to be as prepared as possible.
All I could sit there and think was, “This is how a team culture is built.”
And folks, every single coach will gladly tell you when it’s right, it’s built by the players.
Warren County has started 4-0 behind a wrecking-ball running game, opportunistic playmakers on the edge and a nasty front on defense that makes life miserable for opponents. And that success seems to be fueling the group more every week. They want more practice, more work, more accountability.
They’re willing to do more because it’ll give them more of what they really want: wins.
Chris Sullens really got the ball rolling for me with this team by following them the opening two weeks to their games in Smithville and Jasper. His videos showed the will and skill of the WCMS football program, one that just a few years back was trying to battle out of a nearly three-year losing streak.
Kids like Dallas Gater, Mikhail Wilcher, Brody Chisam, Bryson Carroll, Gabe Rowland and Gus Bouldin have been out there making play after play, while the big boys on the front line have been doing what they always do: shining in the shadows and soaking up little of the glory for the wins.
It’s a symbiotic group, the perfect representation of synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of some pretty impressive individual parts.
But even that won’t always get you where you want to go.
At the end of the day, Warren County’s best football talent has always been the kids who simply will outwork opponents. And while they’re not the only kids who were probably out on a football field Sunday in the heat, heck, maybe Coffee County was too, the Pioneers did it together and did it when they didn’t have to.
That’s a culture that could sustain, not just at the middle school level, but moving forward when everybody wants to see that glory on Friday nights at Nunley Stadium.
And maybe this is the next group that will be able to deliver it.
But I’d offer one word of caution: Let’s not rush this.
I think we should all just enjoy what is happening right now at WCMS. I’m as guilty as anybody of trying to project things two or three years out and wondering what it could be. Could Wilcher steamroll high school players on his way to 1,000 yards in 2030? Will Dallas Gater continue to be a touchdown maker in the future?
Maybe. It’s fun to think about.
But trying to pin the weight of the Pioneer football future on them before they’re ever in high school would be wrong of us, even if these kids seem more than willing to embrace any challenge.
Expectations are great when they’re established inside the program. But when it’s the rest of us trying to project what we think kids can or should do, it can get murky.
I saw a little bit of that just last week with the WCHS volleyball team.
That’s another group of kids who have started to change the complexion of their sport in this community, but they also know there are still hills to climb. Losing three in a row was upsetting, most of all for them, but it doesn’t mean they’ve suddenly taken a step backward in the process.
If anything, some of the play I saw last week was as high level as I’ve ever seen from the Lady Pioneers. Now it’s about harnessing it more regularly.
That’s what we all should hope for with this upcoming class of Pioneers, too. They’re just scratching the surface of their talents and already finding ways to bring their best every single time they put on the pads.
And sometimes, being at their best won’t have anything to do with whether they have the pads on.
Maybe it’ll be a holiday weekend when they could be at the pool, scarfing down burgers or just playing video games at home. Instead, they’re calling practices on their own because they want to get better.
Nobody made them do it - They wanted to do it. That’s culture. That’s inspirational. That’s being Pioneers.
