25 teams in 25 days: St. Patrick Fighting Irish

“A good season would mean a lot,” senior Ayden Le said. “Not only to me but to this team and this school also.”

The St. Patrick Fighting Irish finished last season 2-7 and are looking to change the minds of everyone with this upcoming season. While year-to-year change can be difficult for any team in South Mississippi, things may be more challenging for the Fighting Irish with a new head coach. But if you ask any member of the football team – they are eager to prove other wrong.

“This is something that I have looked forward to for the last four years,” Carter McLendon said. “I am excited that it is finally here. I just want to give these guys the best season that we can give them. We are just working as hard as we can and I want it to pay off for all of us. We are blessed. It is always hard to change coaches and all of that but we are blessed to have such a good coaching staff.”

“I love the competition aspect of it,” head coach Nate Encrapera said. “We stress that you are competing in everything that you do. You are competing in all of the time. Seeing the fruits of those labor is definitely something you love.”

While talking with coach Encrapera he mentioned the culture of winning that St. Patrick high school has with their soccer, baseball, and softball programs. While having a new head coach can be difficult he is going to do all he can as a leader to turn the Fighting Irish football program around.

“We are going to figure it out,” he said. “Exactly what is right, what is wrong, what we need to change, every aspect of it. It’s really not even like a rebuild. It is like restart. We are restarting the program from scratch and evaluating what coaches need to do to provide a better product. That constant learning a evaluation process I am just looking forward to it.”

He isn’t the only one looking forward to getting started. Seniors carter McLendon and Ayden Le both say they can’t wait to run on the field for Friday night lights.

“I feel like I am excited for it,” Le said. “I feel like everyone else is excited because you work all summer just to play these games on Fridays. You work all day during the week to get to that Friday.”

“There is always a little bit of anxiety,” McLendon said. “I am telling you when the game starts there is nothing like it. All of this pays off.”

“Obviously I am excited,” coach Encrapera said. “If you can’t get excited about coaching football I don’t know what you are doing. If you are coaching football you are doing it because you love those Friday night lights.”