The future is now

The future is now

Success for West Memphis Christian High School’s football team is a direct result of the dynasty that is the Junior High program

sports@theeveningtimes.com

Success in high school football starts primarily with developing talent at the junior high level and there is a dynasty thriving at West Memphis Christian Junior High as the Junior Black Knights finish a 6-0 season and bolstered their cumulative record over the past four seasons to 27-2.

The Junior Black Knights have won their district championship for three consecutive seasons, going 20-1 this past year and this year’s crop of junior high athletes outscored their opponents by a combined score of 200-24 with four shutouts, Lee Academy being the only team that managed to score against the West Memphis Christian Junior High defense.

Junior Black Knights head coach Darrow Anderson actually credits the success of the junior high program overall to district championship loss three seasons ago that this year’s Black Knight’s high school seniors suffered to Northpoint Christian Junior High as ninth graders.

“That game we lost was really a wake-up call for the to realize, ‘Hey, we can do this. We can win these games.’,” Anderson said.

“You see the different aspects of getting used to winning and having an expectation of winning,” Anderson said. “It’s just a process of changing the culture of winning and losing and not accepting defeat.”

One of the biggest tools which has contributed to the winning ways at West Memphis Christian Junior High may be the joint practices that the Junior Black Knights hold with their high school counterparts. Like a baseball player warming up in the batter’s box with a donut on his bat so that he can swing quicker at the plate, Anderson believes the stiff competition the Junior Black Knights see in practice makes them better equipped to handle their junior high opponents.

“When you’re an 8th or 9th grader and you line up against your high school linemen, they’re facing big guys,” Anderson said. “So, when somebody else walks out in front of them that aren’t as strong as some of the guys they’ve been facing in the high school guys, it makes a big difference as far as how they play, what they’re used to seeing and the level of talent.”

And, Anderson says that the West Memphis Christian High School players take pride in preparing the future generation of Black Knights.

“They understand the process of what we’re trying to do as far as building the program,” Anderson said. “If they take it easy on those guys in practice and don’t push them, they realize that they’re not helping them.”

WMCS has certainly reaped the benefits of it’s junior high football program, with the ninth graders who started the culture of winning, even in the loss to Northpoint Christian, now seniors on the high school team. The Black Knights is currently 5-2, on a five-game winning streak and has outscored opponents in those five games by a combined score of 216-20.

The West Memphis Christian Junior High Black Knights won their third consecutive district title, going 20-1 over the past three seasons.

Photo submitted

By Collins Peeples