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Vicksburg High running back DeCorey Knight Jr. carries the football during a summer workout at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football players Malik Minor, left, and Mickell Jones work a lineman drill. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High running back DeCorey Knight Jr. takes a handoff from quarterback Jamikal Maxey during a summer workout at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football player Desmond McGee runs through an agility drill during a workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football player Desmond McGee catches a tennis ball during a drill at a workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football coach Christopher Lacey gives instructions to his team for a drill during a workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High quarterback Jamikal Maxey holds the football during a summer workout at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High's Abel Gonzalez tees up a football during a summer workout at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High's Abel Gonzalez kicks a football during a summer workout at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High cheerleaders work on a routine during a practice in June at Memorial Stadium. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football player Jabari Jones runs through an agility drill during a workout in June. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Vicksburg High football coach Christopher Lacey will often remind his players and anyone else who listens that “this year’s team is not last year’s team.”

It’s meant as a reminder not to rest on past success, but this year the Gators are taking it literally.

Nearly a dozen three- and four-year starters who formed the core of the roster for several seasons have finally graduated. Stepping into their shoes are a host of young players who are using the summer workout period to acclimate themselves to new roles in addition to playing football in the Mississippi heat.

“When you lose 20 four-year starters you’ve got a whole brand new team. My saying ‘This year’s team is not last year’s team’ couldn’t be more true right now,” Lacey said with a laugh. “It’s been fun watching the new transition of guys having to step up into roles.”

Getting the new starters up to speed goes beyond teaching them the playbook, Lacey added. The departed players were also locker room leaders by default, and filling that void off the field is as important as making plays on it.

Lacey said he’s been pleased with how his returning players have stepped into that role.

“We’ve been doing a good job of putting them in situations where they have to lead and make them speak before practice to each other. Forming groups and doing those types of things,” Lacey said. “They’ve been carrying the torch pretty well.”

Lacey added that he’s not just trying to find a few leaders the rest of the roster can follow, but instill a self-motivating mindset into everyone.

“We’re just trying to build that culture,” Lacey said. “We’ve talked to them about culture being what’s done when Coach Lacey is not around. The guys have been attacking that pretty well.”

Lacey also said he’s not immune to accountability. After he was promoted to head coach in May 2023 and thrust into planning and executing the offseason program, Lacey admits he made some mistakes as a first-year head coach. He’s trying to correct them this time around.

“This is my first offseason. The last one didn’t really count to me because of how the hiring was and everything,” he said. “This has been my first real offseason I’ve had at Vicksburg, so some of the mistakes we made last year we’re not making them this year.”

The Gators wrapped up the first of three phases of summer and preseason work on June 28, then took the following week off for the MHSAA’s mandated “dead week.”

Phase two started on July 8, with about a month of morning workouts focusing more on playbook installation and conditioning.

Preseason practice officially begins Aug. 5, and a scrimmage is scheduled for Aug. 23 at Clinton. The season opener is Aug. 30 in the Red Carpet Bowl against Holmes County Central. The Red Carpet Bowl will be played at Warren Central.

Vicksburg’s last win in the Red Carpet Bowl came in 2016. Ending that streak is something Lacey desperately wants.

“When we come back we’re going to be focused on the Red Carpet Bowl. We haven’t won a Red Carpet Bowl since 2016, so we’re going to win us one this year is the mindset,” he said. “Everybody is hearing that, speaking things into existence and working them into existence. That’s what we’re doing.”

2024 VICKSBURG HIGH SCHEDULE
All games start at 7 p.m., unless noted
Aug. 30 — r-vs. Holmes County Central, 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 6 — at Forest Hill
Sept. 13 — Natchez
Sept. 20 — Terry
Sept. 27 — at Yazoo City
Oct. 4 — Open date
Oct. 11 — *Neshoba Central
Oct. 18 — *Warren Central
Oct. 25 — *at Callaway
Nov. 1 — *Columbus
Nov. 8 — *at Ridgeland
r-Red Carpet Bowl, at Warren Central
*MHSAA Region 2-6A games

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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