IRONEagle

I’m loving every moment of football season! Lets go Eagles.

West Bolivar vs Northside postponed until 3PM Saturday. Game didn’t start due to lightning. It’s an absolute war on social media right now.. local fans from nearby towns are taking shots at West Bolivar players and team. The loyal WB fanbase has come out in numbers. I absolutely love my hometown Eagles and the loyal fans. We’re a football town! 5x state champions.. IronEagle locked in!

I have an idea in my mind that’s going to get the attention of the MHSAA. I’m working on a report that will be submitted to them once everything is put together. There’s no reason West Bolivar’s football program should be in this position.. if you visit any school in 1A, 2A, or 3A it’s clearly evident what’s being done at West Bolivar. I watched the last game and immediately after received a very important phone call. People just as you have Iionpack noticed exactly what I’ve been saying is true. We want what’s best for WB. I got a text today from a former Rosedale player who played in the 90s during the Leland Young era, saying that he’s shocked at how a team fill with so much talent performed that way on the field. Even other people are calling on me to be put on the sidelines on the Jr. High level, to get this program back on track. And that’s why I’m putting together the info necessary to get the MHSAA attention.

True story: IronEagle athletics is having an impact on the culture shift behind the scenes that is slowly happening at West Bolivar. After a disappointing showing Friday, the underclassmen of West Bolivar reached out to me to have workout sessions during the weekend. That has never happened here since the years we were winning multiple state titles. I don’t know and honestly have shifted my attention from how this season will look/end for West Bolivar. But I do know with 7 returning starters on offense and defense for next season, some of them beginning to work with IronEagle athletics means the future is bright. Taking notes and waiting for the return of real Rosedale football.. lifting weights, running the levee, hitting the sled on the practice field.. get your popcorn ready!

The O’Bannon Greenwaves defeated West Bolivar 34-6. Simply put, this wasn’t an acceptable showing. The standard has to change or else. If I learned anything from studying West Bolivar’s football tradition under Coach Leland Young and being part of the Coach Henry Johnson era it was West Bolivar had a fundamentally sound and discipline program. Top to bottom. On and off the field. The coaches were discipline. The administrators were discipline. The players were discipline. The trainers were discipline. The band directors and band members were discipline. The cheerleaders were discipline. Last but not least the FANS were discipline. We were united even despite our differences. Any time you see and hear the things that transpire on a daily to weekly basis here it’s no wonder WE haven’t been consistent or capable of producing winning results on ANY level, ANY sport, academics, nor community relations etc. It’s because we are a divided community. Conflicted among each other. Patch work efforts won’t solve the internal issues. And until it changes at the top and no I’m not referring specifically to coaching, we’ll continue to struggle. Our team last night based on number of players, the size, skill-set of players up and down the roster… should not have been outmatched by O’Bannon. We should’ve atleast been competitive. But the truth is, you can’t win and be successful as a team without an identity. That comes from many aspects of athletics and academics. That starts before you touch the field. Starts with the adults and trickles down to the kids. It takes leadership and not just from coaches, players, parents, etc. As a community we need to do better and change before the ship sinks. I’m disappointed at how the heart of this community has deteriorated when we could be so much more, we should be accomplishing so much more. Get your popcorn ready because for me I’ll continue to support, mentor, train, lead, and educate the youth of this community until I witness them reach their potential and attain success. As Coach Prime says, I believe!

Unofficially the word is that Friday game against MS Palmer was canceled by the visiting team. West Bolivar will not play it’s season opener at legendary Leland Young Stadium. The 5x champions will next week go on the road to face O’Bannon. Note from today is the freshmen class. WB has a trio of freshmen skill players that are very athletic. I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform on Friday nights. We’re getting closer to full strength. Still some work to be done. I like our chances in the district. Get your popcorn!

IronEagle’s Official Teams to Watch in the MS Delta: Clarksdale High (first two weeks canceled) Cleveland Central (1-0) Greenville Christian (2-0) Hollandale (0-0) bye week South Delta (1-0) forfeit by Humphrey West Bolivar (0-0) bye week The MHSAA football season kicked off last week and its been intriguing to hear about how competitive some games have been to start the year. The team in particular that I will watch is the mighty West Bolivar Eagles. This team is full of nature talent.. and I honestly hope the one Coach left on this High School staff with ties to Rosedale has input on what goes into the game plan. I saw a glimpse of a scheme I thought about this weekend today in practice and it got me fired up. Scott Central ran that defense on their way to a State Title and their personnel matches what West Bolivar has. But the X-factor is how will it be coached. And how discipline the players will execute their assignments. If it works then this defense will fly around and hit teams in their mouth week in and week out. This group can win 8 to 10 games in the regular season. Played our scrimmage game with 16 players and a lot of those young kids had to step on the field and it gave them some confidence..after that scrimmage game people on the inside at WB had coaches from other schools in the area calling me to talk down on the football team. This person told me we had the worse team in the district! I’m going to let the players know this before our season opener.. people don’t want to see them be successful. Last time we played, we won the district with a 9-3 record. That same year loss our star QB in the season opener to an ACL injury. But that didn’t stop us.. all this talk will not stop us. They even started bouncing the basketballs in the gym every single day during school! But all that has worked in favor of the football team. The last week and two days of practice really has me fired up.. those players came to me and said we’re ready. “30 strong” Get your popcorn ready!

Lionpack, from my experience working in public education I truly feel it’s not that women can’t lead; it’s the way many people which happen to be female decide to lead. Once I realize someone is making emotional decisions in a leadership role it automatically is a red flag. Educating students is hit or miss. There’s no middle ground. It pains me to see students slip by and not be prepared for the real world because of grown individuals poor decision making. And when students aren’t taught how to be respectful to adults and in the public eye it’s detrimental. If you’re an admin, to me the first rule is that you MUST leave your personal feelings at the door and do your job each and everyday. As I stated, our issue really is poor male leadership. Trust me, if someone is a good male leader right now in the Delta area they aren’t on many folks good side. You’ll look at social media and people have the street committee fooled. I’ve seen people in person that can’t educate or lead any child to success if the task was just to go outside and fill a bucket with dirt! Sorry and selfish people aren’t meant to lead anyone; much less our future.

I had to speak the truth lionpack. West Bolivar’s football tradition is set. It’ll always be and kids today just have to get it back on track which they are fully capable of doing under the right leadership. It starts at Jr. High. The truth is, since Coach Henry Johnson departure after winning two state titles we’ve never had any strong male leadership in the school. Coach Johnson also had the benefit of having at one point in time during his coaching tenure at WB strong principals. There’s not a single male principal or assistant principal in the entire district. We’re just missing a strong male presence in terms of leadership. I spoke with a representative yesterday from MHSAA, and the conversation was very resourceful. Never met the person, but I could tell he was a leader. At this point, I’m taking it upon myself to change this and bring back the pride to this storied program.

The season is here.. the 5x champions have a bye week to start the 2021 regular season. True story: Yesterday, I received a phone call from an assistant coach/coordinator from Hollandale. The guy literally degraded West Bolivar football team for this year and years to come as the worse team in the district. Went as far as to say West Bolivar would get beat by Jr. High teams. He told me not to even post supporting my school on MST. As you can imagine, our conversation didn’t end on a good note. I’m still heated today. In addition to his remarks, he mentioned people from the Rosedale community and school giving this kind of detrimental intel that’s causing strife inside of the athletic program. Stating that no one but me (which is not true) believes the team can compete. IronEagle from the moment that call ended has been on a mission. West Bolivar will not be disrespected or sabotaged as long as I’m apart of this community. Get your popcorn ready..

I watched some of West Bolivar practice today. The talent is there.. just added some athletes from Ray Brooks. There’s a good freshman out there but it’s a different one than the kid I thought would be the standout. Actually there’s two of them by the end of the season that will be good football players. Get your popcorn ready!

It’s happening.. a influx of students from the Benoit area have transferred to West Bolivar from McEvans. A number of them have interest in playing football. We’ll see how long before certain people working in the district try to draw them to specialize in a particular less successful sport at the school. Even parents I’ve spoken with mention football was one of the important factors in their decision to transfer. With so much going on with Covid, and the new rules from the MHSAA it’ll take strong leadership to ensure athletics are operating through the proper procedures at the school level.

I will have to do so as well.. West Bolivar, McEvans, and South Delta didn’t play football in 2020. I’ll give Hollandale a slight edge heading into the season after they reinstated their season and went on to compete in the post season. West Bolivar has added some players since the spring game. I decided to wait for a few weeks and get another look at these teams in the fall jamboree. I’m not familiar with Biggersville, Tupelo Christian, etc. Due to Covid, teams will be forced to make changes in the coming weeks. This season could be unpredictable week to week.

Good stuff. I will put together the list for the North tomorrow. I need to see West Bolivar one more time before releasing my preseason rankings. I’ve seen some teams play this spring. West Bolivar seems to have had a full off-season although its still not near the level of what a true West Bolivar off-season conditioning program looked like yearly under Coach Johnson. I’m eager to see the freshman ATH/DB take the field this fall. He didn’t play in the spring but trained with IronEagle athletics this summer. I had conversations with the parent and player recently, this kid will have a huge year. He’ll line up against some skilled WRs during the season from schools like MS Palmer, Northside, McEvans, South Delta, Hollandale, etc and I expect him to be competitive starting week 1. The most skilled freshman I’ve seen in 1A or 2A since Kailo Moore & William Lloyd (West Bolivar), and Duke Upshaw of (Baldwyn).

Kurt, list your top 5 teams in 1A South. I will announce my top 5 teams in 1A North.

The regular season is approaching. May the best team win. Good luck.

Good stuff Kurt. Those programs deserve a lot of credit. I’m going to say something about coaching, if West Bolivar had maintained stability at the Head Coaching position which was impossible under the previous administration then right now I’ll predict us being a title contender. Coach Henry Johnson with the 2016, 2019, and this 2021 group would be outstanding. With the Evans brothers, Wiggins, Lee, Garner Fountain and many others West Bolivar would be dominant under his leadership. I’m talking West Bolivar 2004-2011 and Bassfield type of team speed in 1A.

Before West Bolivar three year starter at QB was sidelined with an ACL tear in the season opener, we were heading towards a matchup with Lumberton in 2019.

A Twitter guy preview who makes MHSAA/MAIS predictions. I don’t put much stock in it just here talking football. I hope we’re able to watch high school football for the time in a year without having to cancel games but that isn’t a realistic goal right now.

1A has some good teams. I honestly just have confidence in the talent here at West Bolivar. I will respect your input and give credit to Bay Springs. I would love to see them and West Bolivar play in the fall jamboree. Any idea on if Bay Springs already has a game scheduled? The point I was making was the credibility is lacking when a sports writer who hasn’t seen certain schools or dismisses their tradition based on opinion not fact decide to put together preseason polls. They need to do their homework. Two years ago, Hollandale wasn’t the same team. Last season, West Bolivar and McEvans didn’t play along with Leflore Co who has move up to 2A. Hollandale was going to be successful last season no matter what based on all those teams not playing including West Tally. Coach T. Johnson is a good coach, I respect him. But if the sports writer thinks it’s a clear cut favorite in the North or even the district their opinion based analysis in this 1A Preview has to be taken with a grain of salt.

NoWammies, I just looked at the 1A Preview published by a writer that preseason poll looked very similar to what gets posted here on MST and couldn’t help but take note of it for future reference. They just talk sports and put their opinions on paper, then call it sports media. Since the spring game, both Garner and Adams have put on about 15 or 20 pounds. I expect a big year from those players you mentioned. After seeing South Delta, Hollandale, and McEvans this spring those two players will definitely help us match up with our division opponents and give them a look they haven’t seen since last facing West Bolivar in 2019. It’ll be an interesting year. Some other standouts on this team with all-state potential QB #7 Lee, C/DL #51 Wiggins, WR/DB #2 Evans, and RB/DB #6 Evans. We are very strong, big, and physical on defense. I don’t see any team running the football on this front 7 in 1A. Not Taylorsville, Bay Springs, Hollandale, South Delta, McEvans, etc. A few underclassmen coming up should be key on both sides of the ball. It’s good to be under the radar. Last time we were the season ended with a district title in 2019. We didn’t play in 2020, and I liked our chances then as well. This season in 2021, we need one thing to go in our favor: Stay Healthy! If we do that then I predict us winning it all. The popcorn is popping…..

I’m thinking about how great my meeting with the new principal at the HS was as we prepare for the start of school. Of course, IRONEagle was asked if he was still interested in coaching. I later saw photos of a group of West Bolivar football players on social media today, and I decided I’m not going to post a list or predictions on MST..right now we’re excited and know our expectations. We know what we’re capable of. I also recall a few discussions I have had this summer with State Championship coaches. I’m just going to enjoy football this year.

MST, today I will announce the official Delta Region Teams To Watch list. This will include the teams I view as the most talented in the area regardless of classification. I’ve watched most of the schools in the spring or have a source close to the programs. After seeing a lot of predictions being made on this forum and the Sports Talk FB page, I noticed so many were based on the lack of observations or knowledge of teams heading the 2021-2022 season. This isn’t a rankings based on the past or recent coaching hires. After seeing teams in the spring, I looked at the schedules and have made analysis based on how they should perform in the fall. As of today, I will post the most realistic observations and predictions of the schools in the Delta coverage area at 6PM. Get your popcorn ready.

I would also add to the discussion that Rosedale had a 40 game winning streak during the 80s. I was told the game in which the streak ended included a controversial pass interference call against Rosedale that would’ve ended the game.

NoWammies, you put the stories I’ve heard into words. Coach Leland Young and Rosedale was legendary during this era.