New Charles Henderson football coach and athletic director Jamey Dubose believes in building a program from the ground up. While the varsity football team at Charles Henderson soared in 2013, another team didn’t.

In fact, the junior varsity never took flight.

Charles Henderson didn’t field a junior varsity team during the 2013 season, and placed all freshman players on the varsity squad. Dubose said he would like to reinstate the JV program, but also pointed out there are more factors in fielding a team outside of “rolling the football out there.”

“We have to first of all get the numbers out,” said Dubose. “I wasn’t here last year, so I don’t know what happened. But I do know if you are going to have a junior varsity team, which you need, your numbers have to be up.”

Dubose comes to Charles Henderson after six consecutive seasons at the 6A level, where more larger student bodies mean more potential football players. Dubose said there are never too many players for a roster.

“When I was at Prattville, we dressed 150 for the state championship game,” said Dubose. “Last year at Florence in the quarterfinals, I think we had 125. When I got to Florence, we had like 60 players in ninth through twelfth grade. We promote our athletes, and want them to know we are there for them.”

Charles Henderson did field a middle school team in 2013 under the guidance of Jon Clements.

Dubose said that each and every player, no matter age, experience or skill level, is welcome at Charles Henderson.

“It doesn’t matter who you are in my program, you have a role,” said Dubose. “We need people and need players. We want to build the perception that we don’t rebuild, we reload. One part of that is creating the JV team and getting the younger kids excited.”

Dubose said he is also looking outside the halls of the school in an attempt to build excitement for the younger players.

“I look forward to working with the City of Troy and building up our youth football,” said Dubose. “I want to grow it from the ground up.”