The hustle and bustle has been almost non-stop this spring at the St. Joseph Catholic School field house. Men who coach at some of the most glamorous college football programs in the country have come to the Greenville campus, shooting the breeze and trying to put on their best fronts as they hope to sell either Dillon Johnson or Trey Benson to their respective schools.
It’s mostly position coaches who have come to make their pitches to Benson, a tailback, and Johnson, a quarterback, who will be entering their senior seasons next fall. These coaches come from places as far away as Happy Valley, Pennsylvania and Eugene, Oregeon. Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead and Ole Miss coach Matt Luke have also been spotted on the Greenville field house.
Johnson and Benson both say they will make a decision sometime next year, a long time for two young men currently enjoying all the social media attention their recruitment has generated from college football fans hoping one or both of the dynamic duo will attend their favorite school.
But this time, until the fall, is not so long for St. Joseph Head Football Coach John Baker. Baker will be entering his 11th season as the head man of the Fighting Irish next season. Baker has coached the young men at St. Joseph to two straight state football championships the last two seasons. Those championships did not begin in the fall, but with tough spring practices and hard summer workouts.
Baker, and the rest of his coaching staff, have for months now turned their preparations into winning a third straight state championship. It’s only natural, especially when you have the stalwarts of Johnson and Benson, back for one more glorious run.
But, to a man, these coaches will tell you that there is one big hurdle in their way this season — Big Bad Indianola.
Despite the two glorious championship seasons, the one blemish for the Fighting Irish is that they have lost to Indianola Academy the last two seasons.
And, this season a loss to Indianola Academy would be even more critical sense St. Joseph will be in the same Mississippi Association of Independent School’s Class AAA division. The Irish were in Class AA last season.
“They will definitely be the favorites next season,” Baker said. “They have a lot of great players coming back next season.”
While Baker will have the one-two punch of Dillon and Trey next season, he said he will need a number of his players next season to step up their games. Baker said he hopes that linebacker Elvis Scott will have an even bigger year this season. Defensive linemen Jordan Scott and Brittain Virden are also expected to take more leadership roles. Wide receivers AJ McCloud and C.J. Moore are also expected to keep working hard and getting better, the coach said.
“We are not going to change what we do,” Baker said. “We are just going to keep doing what we do as good as we can.”
