News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days: Poplarville Hornets
Consistency is key at stop number three on News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days. The Poplarville football factory has reached the final four of Class 4A for the last half-dozen years.
Ready or not, once again, here come the Hornets who seem to be at their happiest when their opponents are unhappy.
Outside linebacker Mark Will said, “We know the standard we uphold to. We have to make it back. That’s not a choice – we might lose a playoff game, no. We have to make it back. That’s the standard to go to the state championship.”
To put it simply, the Poplarville football program is a wagon, having gone to the 4A South State championship game six years in a row with a combined Region 7 record of 28-2 during that stretch. Quarterback Matt Will said, “It’s just a testament to these coaches and the culture they’ve created. Whenever you build a culture like that and you have success from year after year after year, and you just have guys that come in and group after group, that’s not a coincidence.”
Head Coach Jay Beech said, “We’ve played a lot of football games, and a lot of big football games. We’ve been to the state championship four times and lost every one of them, we know that. We’ve been to south state six times. But it still doesn’t take away from the fact that we are super proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
Last season, the 11-3 Hornets just five points away from making it five in six years, but unable to hold onto their fourth quarter lead in a gut-wrenching 12-7 loss to eventual state champion Columbia on the Friday after Thanksgiving. “I didn’t think we were quite tough enough to win that last game, to be honest. And I’ve told the team that, and that’s something we’ve worked on is our mental toughness, physical toughness.”
Middle linebacker Nakiel Trotter said, “When he told us that, yeah that made everybody want to get ready. Put on your shoulder pads and come on. Like, be a man. So, it made everybody tougher.”
Short term pain for a long-term gain has always been the name of the game for the Hornets. They’ve always been able to dish it as well as they can take it, punishing opponents with their patented Wing-T offense, led by returning seniors Maurice Travis and Avan Jarvis, accounting for more than half of their 4,000- plus yards in 2021.
“It gets dirty in the Wing-T.”
“This sounds weird from a quarterback, but I have just as much excitement throwing a touchdown as I do handing off a touchdown and watching somebody score.”
“Our offense, we’ve got some heavy hitters on there, too, not just on our defense, so it’s going up. It’s like a stalemate every time you meet somebody in the hole.”
All of a sudden, the Poplarville defense is just as dangerous as the offense, ever since the arrival of Defensive Coordinator Jacob Aycock in 2020. The Hornets are allowing an average of less than 12 points over their last 28 games and giving up eight points or less in half of those games. “I definitely think we feel overlooked, but ever since Coach Aycock has been here, we’ve definitely been a defensive team.”
“We went from primarily having to rely on our offense to saying hey, let’s shut down teams. Let’s make football not fun for our opponents. Let’s shut these guys down.”
With Khalid Moore now suiting up for Mississippi State, the Hornets replace their big star through the collective, returning 11 starters and a 2023 class of 22 seniors that would do absolutely anything to protect the Hornets Nest. “We have a great senior class this year. I mean we’ve got a bunch of kids that love football.”
“This group, like you said, leaving that lasting legacy. Trying to do something that Poplarville has never done before which is win that state title.”
“The older guys, looking up to them, made us get ready for this moment, you feel me?”
“Win or lose, I’m thankful to play here at Poplarville. I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else. If they said you’re going to win the state championship somewhere, I’m staying in Poplarville. I would play with my guys and lose every game than go anywhere else.”
Poplarville breaks in its new turf field with three straight home games, starting with defending 5A state champion Picayune on August 26th.
Head Coach Jay Beech is steady as they come, and let’s get to know him a little better, starting with his go-to Poplarville meal, the Eclectic Café. Favorite call in the entire playbook is the Buck Sweep. His favorite championship moment is the Saints winning the Super Bowl.
