Before the season starts, there’s a few things Thad Bridges and Josh Morgan have to learn about working at Warren Central.

Little things, really, like not calling their co-workers &#8220Mr.” or &#8220Mrs.”

&#8220It’s been funny mingling and mixing with the teachers that taught me,” laughed Bridges, the new head coach at Warren Central Junior High and a former football star at the high school. &#8220Over at the junior high I still don’t call Mrs. Yates or Mrs. Bonelli by their first name. It’s going to be hard for me to do it that way, because it’s what I’ve always done.”

Morgan and Bridges returned to the WC fieldhouse as coaches this week, nearly a decade after occupying it as players. They are the latest in a long line of former Vikings to coach at the school after suiting up in the red uniforms.

Three of the 10 coaches currently working in the WC program – Larry Tyrone, Robert Morgan and head coach Curtis Brewer – have been there more than 20 years. Of the remaining seven coaches, five played football at WC.

&#8220I don’t think that’s a bad thing. That’s a good thing,” said Bridges, who is second on WC’s all-time career list for receiving yards and helped the Vikings to their last state championship in 1994. &#8220I think a lot of the success is attributable to the stable coaching foundation. There’s not a lot of coaching turnover. There’s a system in place, and apparently it works.”

Part of the system is bringing back old Vikings to help teach the new ones. In addition to the stability at the top, 11 former players have been assistant coaches at WC since 1998. When some have left, others came back to take their place.

That’s how Josh Morgan and Bridges got their chance. B.J. Smithhart and Brian Oakes, two more ex-Vikings, left the program in May.

Morgan, who also starred at Mississippi State, was a graduate assistant at Memphis last season and was on his way to a similar position at Southern Miss when the phone rang. He filled in for Oakes during spring practice and was hired full-time for this season.

&#8220I wasn’t looking for it. I took a GA job at Southern Miss and had my stuff in the U-Haul,” he said. &#8220It was something I couldn’t pass up.”

Especially the chance to coach alongside his father, Morgan added.

&#8220To be able to coach with my dad a year or two, or however long he keeps at it, that’s something I’ll cherish every day,” Josh Morgan said.

Bridges, meanwhile, had inquired about coaching at WC several times in the past but there were no openings. He finally got his opportunity when Smithhart followed Oakes to Stone County.

&#8220Just starting out, I just wanted a job. But with respect to Warren Central, I did come here first,” said Bridges, who last served as head coach at Utica Junior High. &#8220(Warren Central’s) staff was solid then, and Coach Brewer said if they had any vacancies he’d keep in touch. He was true to his word.”

Over the years, Warren Central has prided itself on the family atmosphere in the fieldhouse. Generations of players have come through there in the last 40 years, with many fathers, sons and uncles playing for Robert Morgan, Brewer and Tyrone.

With the new generation of coaches, Josh Morgan said the family theme is continuing. Most of the younger coaches played together or were only a couple years apart in high school. That has made them like brothers, he said, with the three older coaches as father figures.

&#8220It’s like a family. That sounds like a cliche, but it’s not. That’s how it feels,” Morgan said. &#8220It’s way more than just a job.”