The 2024 football season did not go the way the Vicksburg Gators wanted. It certainly won’t end how they wanted it to.

With an 0-9 record, no chance at the playoffs, and one game left on the schedule, there’s only one thing to play for, head coach Christopher Lacey said.

“No matter what your record is, when you get an opportunity to compete against another jersey you should want to win the game. So it’s going to go back to day one stuff. We want to be able to do the football stuff right and win a football game,” Lacey said. “When you’re a young man, it’s a pride thing. It’s an inside your body thing. I’m competing against somebody and I want to win.”

Vicksburg (0-9, 0-4 MHSAA Region 2-6A) will go on the road Thursday to play Ridgeland (5-4, 2-2). This is the first time the Gators will miss the playoffs since 2019, and the first time since 2010 that they’ll enter the regular-season finale out of playoff contention.

Despite their struggles, the Gators have been competitive. Five of their nine losses have been by one score, and two others were that way until deep in the fourth quarter.

Lacey acknowledged that it doesn’t really matter how the Gators got to 0-9, it’s still 0-9, but also said it hasn’t been as much of a grind as it seems.

A young roster that lost nearly a dozen multiple-year starters has had obvious growing pains. Lacey said at one point during last week’s 41-27 loss to Columbus he had no seniors and one junior on the field on defense. He’s hopeful they’ll learn from this year’s difficult lessons.

“The football gods have a funny way of showing you what life looks like,” Lacey said. “I think, for me, that’s what it is. Some of them, you can’t look at it like a loss. You have to look at it like a lesson. Hopefully the way that the season went will help groom some of them for things that are going to go on in life outside of high school.”

Vicksburg High and its lineal predecessors — Cooper High, Carr Central and the original Vicksburg High School — have only finished a full season winless twice in 100 years. The first was an 0-4-1 mark for the original VHS in 1923, and the second was Carr Central’s 0-10 record in 1952.

Lacey does not want to join that list, but might take solace in what those other groups of green-clad teams did shortly after they bottomed out.

The Vicksburg Greenies had a winning record in 1924. Carr Central didn’t achieve that until 1955, but that year it went undefeated and won the Big 8 Conference championship — the equivalent of a Class 6A or 7A state title today.
Lacey is trying to keep the big picture in mind.

“My mind is to the point where, we didn’t win a championship. Not necessarily what our record is,” Lacey said. “Regardless of our wins and losses, our goal at the end of the year is always to be the team that’s holding the gold ball. If we’re one of the teams that’s not holding the gold ball then we haven’t done our job. I wouldn’t necessarily put it on 0-10 or whatever. I want to win a championship and we failed that. That’s on me.”

So, for now, the Gators will not hold a gold ball. All they can hope to hold is one bit of success in a very down year, and hold out hope that a brighter future begins with beating Ridgeland on Thursday night.

“I’d be worried if these things were 50-0 or 75-0, but they’ve been pretty tight. It’s moreso, ‘How do we coach past tight?’” Lacey said. “We have to maneuver and do some things differently, but I’m proud of the way the boys have played their butts off all year. I hate it for my seniors, but they’ve done some things well since they’ve been at Vicksburg. Hopefully we get this win Thursday and go off with a dub.”

THIS WEEK’S AREA GAMES
Thursday, Nov. 7
Vicksburg at Ridgeland (Radio: 107.7 FM)
Warren Central at Columbus (Radio: 105.5 FM)
Friday, Nov. 8
Porter’s Chapel at Desoto School (Radio: 104.5 FM)
St. Aloysius at Bowling Green (Radio: 101.3 FM)