Season Preview
New Year, Same Expectations For Vols
The Starkville Academy football program has been a model of consistency since Chase Nicholson took over the reins nearly a decade ago. The Volunteers have averaged 8 ½ wins per season over the course of those nine years and have made two appearances in the MAIS Class 5A championship game, winning it all in 2017.
Despite the loss of several key contributors off last year’s 9-3 team - five All-Stars were lost to graduation - and with a new quarterback at the helm, Nicholson doesn’t foresee any reason for change as he enters Year 10 on 505 Academy Road. The norm should remain the norm in Stark Vegas in other words.
SA kicks off the 2024 season Friday night at Lamar School in Meridian.
“We’re going to do what we do year in and year out,” Nicholson said matter-of-factly. “You lose great players every year. We talk about that all the time around here. We don’t rebuild, we just reload. That’s our mentality day in and day out. We are going
to live in the now, and be where our feet are. The guys have bought into that . . . that’s what our guys are about. It’s about them buying in, understanding the process and going to work every day.”
While guys like Briggs Bennett, Beckett Lesley, Jackson Easton, Camp Overstreet and Ben Lyle will no longer be suited in blue and orange, there are a lot of familiar names and faces that still will. Players such as Luke McKenzie, Luke Johnson, Draper Williams, Kaleb Prather, John Scott Lesley and Nathan Miller, all of whom played in the MAIS Futures game a year ago.
Five starters return from an offense that averaged 26 points per game a year ago. Six starters return from a defense that allowed only 7.6 points per game against 5A competition during the regular season. That’s 11 total returning starters from a team that went undefeated in district play en route to winning the district title, ended an eight-year losing streak to rival Heritage Academy (42-0), and defeated Leake Academy in the opening round of the playoffs before bowing out to Simpson Academy in the 5A semifinals. The Vols’ two regular season losses both came against a pair of 6A schools in eventual 6A State champion Hartfield and Jackson Academy.
“We’ve got a lot of guys back who last year were getting experience for the first time,” Nicholson said. “They’ve got a year under their belt now, so that should translate into them being better players this year. We’re excited about this team. This team can go as far as they truly want to. Will they get it done? We’ll see. I know we have a group of guys who are going to play hard. They are excited about playing football, and they are looking forward to the challenge of playing at Lamar. That’s what we’ve been practicing for since April. The goal is to get better every day, every game. We’re going to show up to play and let the chips fall where they may.”
One major change for SA will be at quarterback, where McKenzie – last year’s top receiver – steps in to replace the departed Bennett, who completed 54 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,305 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago. The tall, rangy, athletically-gifted McKenzie (24 catches, 481 yards) was on the receiving end of eight of those scores.
McKenzie played quarterback as a sophomore and was the backup last season, so it’s not as if he’s never played the position before. “I’ve played quarterback my whole life, so it’s not something that’s new to me,” McKenzie said. “I’m very excited to be back there again this year.”
Having three returning starters on the offensive line back along with the return of Johnson at running back and Owen Couvillion at receiver should help make McKenzie’s transition back to signal caller a smoother one. Johnson rushed for a team-high 1,183 yards and 11 touchdowns last season while averaging nine yards per carry.
“Luke (McKenzie) is ready to go,” Nicholson said. “He’s always been a quarterback through junior high. He got a lot of reps there as a sophomore and last year he came in for a few plays here and there when Briggs got hurt. So, he understands our offense. Last year he took on a role as safety (5 INTs) and receiver . . . while it may not necessarily have been what he wanted at the beginning, he embraced it and ended up finding joy and having fun in helping the team at those positions. It made him a better football
player, and it will make him a better quarterback.”
The Vols lost their top two tacklers from a year ago in Lesley and Overstreet. However, Chandler Wax and Williams return to anchor the defensive line, while Brody Burkley and Miller Shy are expected to do the same at linebacker. McKenzie highlights an otherwise inexperienced secondary. Burkley averaged 12 tackles per game a year ago as a sophomore while registering five sacks and seven tackles for loss.
“We’re going to fly around and play great defense,” Nicholson said. “That’s what we do.”
The schedule, as always, is a tough one. It begins with Friday’s season-opener on the road at Lamar School. The Vols have escaped with narrow wins over the Raiders the last two years - winning 24-22 two years ago after stopping a two-point conversion in the final seconds, and 17-14 a year ago as Nathan Miller booted a 24-yard field goal in overtime.
“It should be a great game, always is,” Nicholson said. “Lamar is tough. Playing them right out of the gate the way we are will do nothing but make us better as we move forward with the season. There’s a large gap between 6A and 5A, but within 5A there’s such a small gap between each of the 5A schools. The coaching is so good across the board in 5A, and it’s loaded with really great players. You may can come up with a list of seven or eight teams you think will contend for the state championship, and you may can name 3-4 favorites. But there’s really no true favorite, in 5A you never know.”
