25 Teams in 25 Days: St. Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws

“Tradition and legacy,” said senior Christian Haas when asked what St. Stanislaus football means to him. “I had two brothers play here and I kind of grew up being here, so it’s fun. It’s playing for the guys that came before us and for each other which is the most important thing to me.”

Continuing his family’s legacy is wide receiver and long snapper Christian Haas, who is one of eight seniors and key players returning for on the gridiron for St. Stanislaus. 

“It’s just a brotherhood,” said senior running back Brayden McDonald. “When I came in, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I kept  adapting and coming out here with my guys and it’s just really fun. A brotherhood is really all it is.”

“We’re all pretty close,” Haas said. “We work together outside of school and we’re pretty much always together outside of football and in football, so we have a really good bond.”

“Over the years I’ve grown friendships with my teammates and we’ve had lots of good moments together,” said senior left tackle and defensive end Garren Couey. “Now we have a lot of new guys to be friends with and help them learn how football is played.”

With only 13 upper classmen on the roster, Couey was right about helping the new guys learn to love the game.

“We’ve got some pieces coming back that were key players last year, but there’s just not a lot of them, so we’re having to fill that with freshmen and sophomores which makes us really young,” said second year Head Coach Tate Thigpen. “Anytime you’re playing freshmen it’s difficult because they’re playing against juniors and seniors that’ve been in the weight room for four years, so that’s a hurdle we’re going to have to deal with, so the off-season weight program was really important to us and had a lot of growth there.”

The Rocks are heavily relying on sophomore quarterback Jayvion Thompson. The righty only started one game last season, but it was a pretty big one.

“He started the last game against Noxubee. We had an injury to the starter from last season, so he took over, ” said Thigpen. “He’s going to be taking snaps this year starting out and we’ve got a couple more quarterbacks behind him, so more quarterbacks in the system than we’ve had since I’ve been here, but they’re all young, so we’re having to teach a lot of things and kind of starting back with the basics. It’s good to have to not unteach things that are bad habits and it’s good to have the opportunity to change the culture of the program a little bit and that’s been the focus of the offseason. We’re trying to generate more positivity, a little more togetherness, and more support for the program in general for the players.”

When it comes to re-teaching and coaching, second-year head coach Tate Thigpen isn’t completely on his own.

“We bond really well,” McDonald said. “We all know each other and we all get along. It’s just a young team, so you have to be patient with these young guys and hopefully they get the job done. We’ve got to put trust in each other. It’s really all it is.”

“I’ll help them by showing them what I’ve learned throughout the years since I’ve been here all four years on varsity,” Couey said. “Since I’m a lineman, I’ll show them what I’ve learned by how I block, how I use my feet, how to perfectly grab pads and things like that.”

“It’s a weird feeling because we’ve looked up to the seniors coming through here and now we’re the guys they have to look up to, and we have a lot of young guys, so our goal is to just help them as much as we can and get them ready for Fridays because we’re going to need them,” Haas said. “We’re going to need them to be good. That’s the reality of the situation. Soon we’ll see these seniors lead and the young guys step up to the plate as they face Forest County AHS for week one! We look forward to seeing what the Rock-A-Chaws will do this upcoming season.