Chiefs believe coaching staff continuity to benefit team

Senior Wil Sims believes that will benefit the Chiefs this fall.

“I think that helps the chemistry a lot,” Sims said. “It makes the team a whole lot closer when no one changes.”

North Jackson head coach Joe Hollis, Jr. said the impact of the consistency with the coaching staff was evident throughout the program this offseason.

“Having the consistency of our entire coaching staff return from last year, our players know what to expect,” Hollis said. “They’ve done a tremendous job this summer of rising to the expectations. We keep pushing, they keep doing everything we ask them to do on a daily basis. As a coach, you see that, you know that this is a team that’s got a chance to build on some things and have a chance to be really good. It’s been a lot of fun watching the guys gel and grow together where everybody’s on the same page.”

The coach, along with Sims and fellow seniors Colton Carpenter and Levi Hughes, discussed North Jackson’s 2022 season during the Jackson-DeKalb Media Day in Rainsville on July 29.

“I absolutely love (working with this coaching staff). They push us as far as we can go and we get out there every day and we go to work,” Hughes said. 

Added Carpenter, “same goals, same mentality.”

North Jackson returns 12 starters from last season’s team, which went 5-6, finished third in Class 4A Region 7 and lost to Gordo in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

Hollis said last season was a good building block for the program he wants to establish but noted the process is only getting started.

“It’s a process. You’ve got to get your players to buy in that it’s not going to look like finished product tomorrow. As coaches, we see the signs, keep watching it build, build, push, develop, every day. And they’re showing us all those signs. These guys are hungry and they will work. They will get after you. At the end of the day, this game has not changed. It’s blocking , it’s tackling, it’s being physical, it’s running the football and playing great defense. And that’s the expectation and that’s the goal,” Hollis said. 

“First year, decent season, 5-5 (in the regular season), got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. That’s not the expectation (at North Jackson). And we know that. And we know what we’re working towards. We’re proud of the group, proud of where we’re at this point. But we’re at North Jackson. The bar at North Jackson is not like everywhere else. The bar at North Jackson, we have high expectations, and that was (been the case) from the very start when they started the program in 1988.”

Carpenter said the Chiefs are motivated to return the program to the success levels of the past.

“It hasn’t been what it’s supposed to be,” Carpenter said, “but me and the rest of the team, we’re ready to change that.”