25 Teams in 25 Days: Pass Christian Pirates
It’s jamboree eve here on New 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days and as fate would have it, the honor of going on the last Thursday before the return of high school football goes to Pass Christian for the second year in a row.
Also for the second year in a row is a new head coach leading the Pirates into battle on the back of the program’s best season ever.
Head Coach Chase Carmody said, “We want to build on that, make it where it’s not a surprise when that happens. That’s going to be our expectation every year. We’re going to be pushing into the playoffs, making runs. So I don’t want it to be oh wow, Pass made the playoffs. That’s a great year. That’s going to be the standard.”
Chase Carmody knows a thing or two about winning, having served as the defensive coordinator of another Pirates team at Pearl, where his side of the ball led all of class 6A in scoring defense during the team’s 16-0 run to a gold ball. Now, it’s all eyes on him as a first time head coach. Defensive Back Jaylin Acker said, “He definitely came in and set the ground rules. He came straightforward, looked everybody in the eyes, looked at everybody and just told them, we’re going to win.”
Defensive End/ Tight End Michael Ezell said, “It was the day I had first come into the locker room, and I was sitting at my locker and he was going around meeting everybody and he looked at me and he shook my hand and it was just that first handshake and it was firm, good, looked me in the eye. I had a good feeling about him. And when he talked, I liked what he said.”
“When I came down here, it’s got all of the ingredients you need to be successful. Kind of like Pearl, we’ve got a great administration, great support, great community. And once everything comes together and we’re all pushing in the right direction, I think we can build something like that.”
Pass Christian broke ground on that project during the lone year of the Blake Pennock era prior to his departure for Ocean Springs. As far as comeback stories go, the Pirates had the best one of the entire Gulf Coast, posting an overall record of 8-4, a seven win improvement from 2018. “It was a roller coaster. But it was one just going all the way up. It never went down, and it was amazing. There’s nothing like it. Just win after win, it felt amazing.”
The cherry on top was hosting the program’s third-ever playoff game against Purvis, a team the Pass had already beaten during the regular season and winning that playoff game against Purvis 35-20 for the first-ever post-season win in school history. “At first, it didn’t really come into my mind. I didn’t think about it. It wasn’t something that I was aware of until after, and I think I heard somebody saying going back to the locker room, guys, that was your first playoff win at Pass forever. And I was like, oh my Lord. I set history. It dawned on me. It really – I was stunned for a second.”
“I just knew it was too long for us not to have one. We all have great athletes that come through here, but for us to be the ones that make history, we’re going to go far.”
This season, Pass Christian’s biggest challenge appears to be youth, down from 17 seniors all the way to just nine. The Pirates also graduated one of the state’s top five passers in Dustin Allison, now at PRCC, but using either drawbacks as an excuse would go directly against the team’s new motto “DMGB” “Don’t matter, get better.”
“It’s the perfect saying for what we’re going through right now because there’s all kinds of adversity and no matter what obstacles you come through, just finding a way to get better.”
“Don’t matter, get better. It means a lot of – we might have some circumstances that we may not like. May have some bad things happen, lose a player, somebody gets injured, things like that. But it doesn’t matter. We’re going to get better. We’re going to have somebody step up. There’s always someone there to fill their shoes. Always going to be something bad that’s going to happen. Just got to deal with it, and get better.”
For example, the Pirates are going to have to deal with the fact that their normal rivalry game against Long Beach, the Oyster Bowl, is now just a jamboree for this year. But just getting to walk-through day in the midst of a global pandemic is already a sign of better things to come. “I don’t think it counts in the official Oyster Bowl rankings, but we’re going to play.”
“Right now, I’m just thinking about getting on that field. I’ve missed it. It’s something that I can’t wait to get back to. Being there with my brothers, my team, I know they’re ready for it. Just getting down on the line, it’s going to be that last first game kind of mentality for me.”
Pass Christian lost its August 21st Oyster Bowl against Long Beach, now tomorrow’s jamboree, as well as an August 28th road game at Forrest County AHS.
The Pirates also picked up South Jones on October 9th and will start the season on September 4th at home against Purvis, that same team Pass Christian beat in its first-ever playoff win.
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