Smithhart is county’s top coach

When he was informed of his selection as the 2014 Vicksburg Post Coach of the Year, BJ Smithhart didn’t hesitate to ask a question.

“Can we get my assistant coaches in the picture?” he asked.

Smithhart’s St. Aloysius Flashes finished 13-2 ­— a school record for wins in a season — and reached a state championship game for the first time since 1981. Although the soft-spoken, easygoing head coach was the figurehead for the team’s success, he was happy and eager to share the credit with everyone else.

“It’s like a culmination of hard work, just to get the right people in the right places. So we feel like it’s a total team award,” Smithhart said. “We’ve had really good people not just on our staff, but in our support staff in the school. When you have people like that, it just makes everything a little bit easier.”

Smithhart’s assistant coaches ­— Russ Nelson, Chris Rabalais, Michael Fields, Ben Price, Anthony Moore and Luke Burnett — and a roster full of talented, experienced players certainly made everything look easy this season.

After losing their season opener to Cathedral, the Flashes ripped off 13 consecutive victories. They scored at least 28 points in all of them, and the closest margin of victory was 10 points. Only two games were decided by less than 19 points.

With a deep and experienced line — three players had started for at least three years, and three others were regulars for two — paving the way for a potent ground game, the Flashes were nearly unstoppable on offense.

They amassed 4,698 rushing yards, almost 6,000 yards of total offense, and scored 78 touchdowns.

The defense was just as good. It registered 48 takeaways and rarely allowed a point before the offense had done its work to turn the game into a blowout.

“You never quite know how a team will gel together from year to year. Talent isn’t always everything,” Smithhart said. “There were some things we had to work on to get better. But we got better and better and better. It made it really fun and made for a special group.”

St. Al had finished 9-5 in 2013 and led at halftime of the North State championship game before fading and losing to Smithville. This season, it broke down the wall to reach the state title game for the first time since the 1981 squad played for the extinct Class B championship.

The high water mark of the two-year run came in this year’s North State title game. The homestanding Flashes routed Coffeeville 35-6, rushing for nearly 300 yards against a defense that had posted nine shutouts in its previous 11 games.

“The Coffeeville game was amazing. For them to come in and be the big bad wolf, and to really play so well right there, I didn’t really see that score coming,” Smithhart said.

St. Al’s dream season came to a crushing end the following week with a 49-14 blowout loss to Cathedral in the championship game in Starkville, but it did little to dampen Smithhart’s joy over his program’s meteoric rise.

St. Al won five games total in 2011 and 2012, then went 22-7 the next two seasons. It is 17-3 in its last 20 games.

“I’m really proud of them,” Smithhart said of his players, and his departing seniors in particular. “They gave us, the school, themselves, everybody a heck of a ride.”

The next challenge, of course, is to keep it rolling. Smithhart will have to replace eight senior starters. Five of them started for at least two seasons.

The list includes three-year quarterback Connor Smith; middle linebacker Casey Landers, the team’s leading tackler in 2013 and 2014; and linemen Drake Dorbeck, Bash Brown and Jacob Kitchens.

Smithhart is optimistic that his returning players will not only pick up the slack, but pick up where their older teammates left off.

“You always have pieces to replace. We’ll worry about that as we get into the spring and just enjoy it right now,” Smithhart said. “The old saying is ‘Success breeds success.’ That seemed to be the case this year, and hopefully we continue something special here on Grove Street.”

Vicksburg Post Coaches of the Year

2014 – BJ Smithhart, St. Aloysius

2013 – Tavares Johnson, Vicksburg

2012 – Josh Morgan, Warren Central

2011 – Alonzo Stevens, Vicksburg

2010 – Todd Montgomery, Central Hinds

2009 – Curtis Brewer, Warren Central

2008 – BJ Smithhart, St. Aloysius

2007 – Randy Wright, Porters Chapel

2006 – Jim Taylor, St. Aloysius

2005 – Randy Wright, Porters Chapel

2004 – Randy Wright, Porters Chapel

2003 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

2002 – Jim Taylor, St. Aloysius

2001 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

2000 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1999 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1998 – J.J. Plummer, Porters Chapel

1997 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1996 – Bubba Booth, St. Aloysius

1995 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1994 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1993 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1992 – Bubba Booth, St. Aloysius

1991 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1990 – James Knox, Vicksburg

1989 – James Knox, Vicksburg

1988 – Robert Morgan, Warren Central

1987 – Joe Edwards, St. Aloysius