WXXV Student Athlete of the Week: Ladd Scriber and the Pass Pirates

In the year 1930, the first red and green traffic lights were installed, the first World Cup tournament took place, and the Pass Christian Pirates created their first football team. All throughout those 93 seasons, the Pirates have never made it to round three of the MHSAA playoffs…until now!

The Pass Christian Pirates and their quarterback Ladd Scriber are the WXXV Student Athletes of the Week.

Four years may seem like a short period of time, but for the senior members of the Pass Christian football team, it was just the perfect amount of time to define their destiny and ultimately make history. Wide Receiver/ Defensive Back Micak McKay said, “It just feels good that our senior season we’ve been able to come out here and have a great record. Going 1-9 our freshman season and being able to develop over four years and get to where we’re at now, it just shows how close we are as brothers and how long we’ve been playing together, everything we’ve done together, and everything we’ve worked hard for all four years of high school.”

Wide Receiver/ Cornerback Terry Patton Jr. said, “Most of us have been playing since we’ve been in middle school and our chemistry has always been there. We always hang out and have been close and doing it with these guys that I’ve been here with and grinding out here with all these years means a lot to all us.”

Quarterback Ladd Scriber said, “Oh it feels great. Obviously, we want to keep going and we want to make it to state and obviously we want to win, but making it this far and getting past that second round as the first team in school history, it feels great.”

Wide receiver/ Safety Anthony James Jr. said, “It’s very important to us. This season has been very great. We didn’t believe we could get this far, but with these coaches they’ve really just put it into us that we can do anything we want, and go as far as we believe we can if we’re determined to do it.”

After winning back-to-back state championships with the Scott Central Rebels, Coach Jeff Stockstill became the new captain of the Pass Christian pirate ship for the first time this season and it didn’t take long for the players to buy into his game plan. “He does everything he can for us and does anything to make us want to keep practicing and keep playing every day.”

“He came in and he knew what he wanted to do. From day one he said he’s a winning coach. Doesn’t matter who plays, he just wants to win football games. He said in our first interview that it was an open season and he gave everybody a fair shot, and I think in doing that he found out who could play and where everyone needs to be and in doing that it really set us up to win some football games.”

At the end of that open pre-season, Stockstill decided to put the rock into the hands of senior quarterback Ladd Scriber, who has now thrown for over 2,100 yards this season so far.

Our WXXV Student Athlete of the Week says that through this position, he has learned some of his most valuable life lessons. “I’ve learned leadership for sure. Coming out here and playing the role as quarterback, it’s taught me a good life lesson that you’ve got to work well with others to get things moving the right way, and definitely playing the quarterback role, it shows me that being a leader is important and if you do the right things and get people to rally behind you then you’re going to set the right track to not only win some football games but it” definitely help me out later in life whenever I get a job and that kind of stuff. Teamwork is really important and I think just being out here with all these guys, it has really taught me a lot.”

Through years of learning and growing, Scriber and the rest of the Pirates aren’t finished making a name for themselves just yet. They have a chance to further their storybook season this Friday against Columbia High School. “Oh my gosh, all of our guys, we’re all excited and we think that we can do it. We’re rallying behind Coach Stockstill. He has a good game plan every week and I just think that we’re super confident and we can make it that far and we can win.”

“It’s the third round of playoffs, we’ve got to keep rolling, and the jobs not finished until we play in Oxford. We’ve got to keep our heads straight and focusing on one game at a time.”

“It’s a big accomplishment for us. This is what we wanted to do at the beginning of the year. We’ve always wanted to leave a mark and we wanted people to always remember us and we’re just trying to further history from here on out and try to make it to Oxford.”