News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days: East Central Hornets
Seems like every time News 25’s Jeff Haeger takes exit 69 north off I-10 east bound for his annual trip to Hurley, the East Central football team is in the weight room.
That’s just the way the Hornets like it, no matter who the head coach is at stop number seven on News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days. “Just always push yourself because there’s no max.”
“We love doing what we do. I mean I love working out. Everybody loves working out.”
“The hollering, screaming, the intensity, the attitude – we’ve got it on our wall – the attitude, toughness. It’s just a different atmosphere here at East Central.”
Skipping leg day is simply not an option at East Central’s last summer workout, leading up to the program’s annual Baddest Hornet competition.
The winner’s name becomes a permanent fixture on the wall, serving as motivation to get bigger, faster, stronger.
Last year’s winner, senior inside linebacker and Southern Miss baseball commit T.J. Dunsford. “Baddest Hornet is just Baddest Hornet, but it means a lot to our team. But the big scheme of things, we just want to win football games together.”
Head Coach Sam Huff said, “I think it’s motivation for the kids to do better every day. It gives them something to shoot for. They look up there and they see that board and they visualize their name on it, and I like to think it pushes them to worker harder. Football starts in the weight room. If they learn to fight in the weight room, then they’ll learn to fight on the football field.”
After serving as an assistant at East Central for the last 15 years, most recently defensive line coach, Sam Huff is running his own ship for the very first time as the successor to the recently departed Eric Collins.
His players certainly familiar with his voice, but not quite as familiar with the kind of post-season success that the program is built on. Dunsford said, “Coach Huff called our seniors in the film room today, and he said that look, you’re one of the only classes that haven’t won a playoff game in all four years you’ve been in high school. He said you might want to change that, and that kind of just got to us. I mean it made us realize that hey, we’ve got to keep this tradition going of being a good winning team.”
“The past three seasons, we have not won a playoff game and that’s just not our standard. So, it’s constantly trying to remind them that if you want to reach the pinnacle where we’ve been before, then you’ve got to do more and do better than what that class did.”
The South State Championship standard set by the 2017 bunch isn’t the easiest shadow to live in, but the Hornets wouldn’t have it any other way.
Last year, they went 7-4 overall, with a district mark of 5-2, good for third place in Region 4 Class 5A before their eventual first round exit at the hands of Brookhaven.
Make that seven straight winning seasons and eight straight playoff appearances for East Central and counting. Inside linebacker Jared Huff said, “I’ve been out on the field my whole life. My Dad has been coaching here since I was born, so just being a senior went by very fast, but just knowing that we can do better than the teams in the past, and it’s just a lifetime experience.”
Overall, 19 seniors and a whopping 17 starters returning to the Hornets Nest this season. “Seventh and eighth grade we actually made it to the championship both years. Ninth grade we went undefeated. And that’s the class that we’ve got this year.”
Dunsford, alongside Jared Huff, anchoring East Central’s 4-2-5 defensive scheme. As for the single-wing, Pro-I offensive, Andrew Marble getting the nod at quarterback and then behind him is running back Eli Smith as well as converted offensive lineman Gavin Trochessett taking over at full back. Smith said, “This senior class, we’ve been together for a while. I mean I knew we were good. But all of that is potential. We’ve got to do something about it now.”
Trochessett said, “It’s a little different. I mean playing pulling guard, I mean it’s pretty much the same thing. I like full back because I get to run the ball. I mean I’m living the O-lineman’s dream.”
Of course, the boys from Hurley dreaming a lot bigger than that, perhaps following in the footsteps of the baseball team’s 5A state title as they approach the 2022 campaign with a new mantra and that’s ‘EAT,’ standing for ‘effort, attitude, toughness.’
“The goal is a state championship because it’s never been done here, and I mean that would absolutely set the bar.”
“We need to. We want to. I think we can.”
“There’s a lot of pictures on the wall in here, and if you were to look at them, you’ll see that they were the class of 2017, or the season of 2017, and those pictures are going to remain on that wall until somebody beats them.”
East Central leads off its 2022 campaign at Biloxi for the annual Shrimp Bowl on August 26th at 7:30 p.m.
Some quick picks with first year Head Coach Sam Huff, who says there’s not a bad meal in Hurley, listing Sassy’s Restaurant and Hurley Huddle Sports Grill as two of his favorites. His favorite play in the entire playbook is 56 power and then coaching idol, sticking close to home with his father Richard Huff, who coached all three of his sons.
