When he prepared for each game this season, there was one important step Jase Jung made sure he never skipped.

“I would drink water. A lot of water,” he said with a laugh.

He needed it. The senior quarterback carried the ball 325 times this season, threw 41 passes and caught two. Added up, he was responsible for 75 percent of Porter’s Chapel Academy’s offensive snaps. It was a heavy workload that was mentally and physically exhausting.

“I would try to drown out all the noise. Then I would lock in on the game because I knew every game was going to be tough. It didn’t matter who we were playing,” Jung said. “I would prepare myself by telling myself, ‘You’ve got to stay in the game. You’ve got to help your team win — and it worked a lot of times.”

Most of the time, in fact. Jung finished with 3,712 rushing yards and 48 touchdowns this season, and 6,422 yards and 87 touchdowns for his career — all of which were Warren County records. It was a season for the ages, and one that made Jung The Vicksburg Post’s Offensive Player of the Year for Warren County.

“It’s an honor to get Player of the Year,” Jung said. “I owe all the help to my line. They showed up every practice. They worked hard. They played all four quarters. It’s not just a one person thing.”

Jung admits his stats took him by surprise, but they didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. He rushed for 1,974 yards and a school-record 25 touchdowns in 2023. His junior season put him on the doorstep of a host of other school records that he checked off on an almost weekly basis.

In the season opener against River Oaks he broke PCA’s career touchdown record that had stood for nearly 50 years.

In Week 2 against Delta Academy he set the Warren County single-game records for yards (532) and touchdowns (7). That was the first of five 300-yard rushing games for Jung this season. In the first 100 years of football in Warren County, there had been nine total and no one had more than one.

The biggest prizes came in PCA’s eighth game, on Oct. 4 vs. Hillcrest Christian. Jung rushed for 284 yards and five touchdowns and, on his final carry of the night — a 63-yard touchdown — broke the Warren County records for both single-season and career yardage. Warren Central’s Brian Darden had held the marks since 1994.

“When I broke the record when we played Hillcrest I was like, ‘Golly, I just did that. That was insane. There’s no way I broke a 30-year-old record.’ It’s still hard to believe,” Jung said. “When I woke up Saturday and I saw it in the newspaper I said, ‘Gee, I did that.’ It feels good to accomplish something like that, especially when you’ve worked so hard.”

Jung continued to add to the totals for another month as PCA reached the second round of the MAIS Class 2A playoffs and finished with an 8-5 record.

He wound up bettering Darden’s yardage records by about 1,500 yards each. He is 13 and 15 touchdowns clear of Darden and Warren Central’s Carl Blue for the career and season records, respectively. Both will likely stand for a while.

“I knew I was going to have a successful career, but this was insane,” Jung said. “Sometimes I would be like, I cannot believe this. It blew my mind a lot.”

Not only did Jung shatter every rushing record on the books in Warren County, he did it while shouldering a punishing workload.

In 2023, the Eagles attempted 143 passes. This year, they threw 56. Jung’s rushing attempts were nearly double the 165 he had last season.

Jung was also a four-year starter at defensive back who finished his high school career with 19 interceptions. He made 70 tackles and led Warren County with six interceptions in 2024.

In all, Jung either carried or caught the ball, threw a pass, or made a tackle on 42 percent of PCA’s plays this season.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that much,” Jung laughed. “I thought it was going to be 20 carries, not almost 40 carries every game. When Auston (Moore) came I thought we were going to split carries, and Chad (Fuson) was going to run it a little bit. As soon as we played Delta and I had 40 carries I said, ‘Yeah, this is going to be a long season.’”

Jung noted that he wasn’t just running around the field, either. PCA’s offensive style quickly morphed from a traditional balanced scheme to more of a single-wing, power running attack with Jung as the quarterback.

“We weren’t running outside all the time. It was downhill football. We were running in between the tackles,” Jung said. “Last year we did run in between the tackles, but we ran a lot of sweeps because we had receivers and we could throw the ball a little bit. I wasn’t expecting more of a power run game. Power run is exhausting.”

Jung said he was ready for a break after football season, but isn’t taking one. He played in the MAIS Class 1A/2A All-Star Game in early December, then joined Porter’s Chapel’s boys basketball team the following week.

In the spring, he’ll likely compete with the school’s track team. Last season he finished third in MAIS Class 3A in the high jump and was part of three relay teams that reached the state meet.

“I wasn’t going to play basketball originally, but I got talked into doing it,” he laughed. “My body is tired, but I sleep a lot.”

While he enjoys his senior year and snatches the occasional nap, Jung added that he was thankful for all the success he and his teammates have already enjoyed. Besides the rushing records, PCA has won a playoff game in three consecutive seasons — something the program hadn’t done since the mid-2000s.

“I think we had a good year. A lot was accomplished,” Jung said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with any other team, and I’m going to miss them so much.”

Vicksburg Post Offensive Players of the Year
2024 – Jase Jung, QB, Porters Chapel
2023 – John Wyatt Massey, QB, Porters Chapel
2022 – Trey Hall, RB, Warren Central
2021 – Tyler Washington, RB, Porters Chapel
2020 – Sha’kori Regan, RB, Vicksburg
2019 – Cedric Phillips, RB, Vicksburg
2018 – Tacarie Stewart, RB, Vicksburg
2017 – Fred Barnum, Jr., QB, Warren Central
2016 – Raheem Moore, WR, Vicksburg
2015 – DeMichael Harris, RB, St. Aloysius
2014 – Connor Smith, QB, St. Aloysius; and DeMichael Harris, RB, St. Aloysius
2013 – Connor Smith, QB, St. Aloysius
2012 – Peter Harris, RB, Porters Chapel
2011 – Cameron Cooksey, QB, Vicksburg; and A.J. Stamps, WR, Vicksburg
2010 – Chris Marshall, WR, Porters Chapel
2009 – Tim Jones, RB, Warren Central
2008 – Clayton Holmes, QB, Porters Chapel
2007 – Austin Barber, RB, Porters Chapel
2006 – Hayden Hales, QB, Porters Chapel
2005 – Chris Mixon, RB, Porters Chapel
2004 – Larry Warner, RB, Warren Central
2003 – Larry Warner, RB, Warren Central
2002 – Richmond Fields, RB, Warren Central
2001 – J.J. Brown, RB, Vicksburg; and Phelan Gray, RB, Vicksburg
2000 – J.J. Brown, RB, Vicksburg
1999 – Caris London, RB, Vicksburg
1998 – Thomas McKnight, RB, Vicksburg
1997 – Josh Morgan, QB, Warren Central
1996 – Ben Jernigan, QB, Porters Chapel
1995 – Stacy Williams, RB, St. Aloysius
1994 – Brian Darden, RB, Warren Central
1993 – Brian Darden, RB, Warren Central; and Jamaal Williams, RB, St. Aloysius
1992 – Brian Darden, RB, Warren Central
1991 – Alfred Daniels, RB, Vicksburg
1990 – Damian McClelland, RB, Vicksburg
1989 – Larry Carter, RB, Warren Central
1988 – Kenny Johnson, RB, Warren Central
1987 – John Kavanaugh, RB, St. Aloysius