In his second year as head coach of the Charles Henderson Trojans, Brad McCoy has made a point building a successful program that runs deeper than the varsity and even junior varsity levels. McCoy wants his football program to be successful, from the middle school to varsity level.

The junior varsity started its season on Monday evening when they traveled and played Carrol-Ozark. Although the Trojans began their season with a 28-0 loss, McCoy sees bright things from the young Trojans.

“We had a rough outing. It was the JV kids’ first game,” McCoy said. “You hate to lose those games but there more about getting these ninth- and tenth-graders some reps.”

The junior varsity and the middle school teams’ schedules are comprised of 6A or 7A programs that offer the challenge of playing bigger schools with more depth ant talent.

“Unfortunately we get to play against a lot of 10 and 11th graders,” McCoy said speaking of his junior varsity team. “That’s just the nature of the game. I told my guys ‘don’t you dare hang your head’ and to realize what you are doing and why we are doing it. It’s all about developing that way your able to play as a sophomore for us as a sophomore.”

Both the middle school and junior varsity teams can be compared to a minor league baseball team. Although every coach and player wants to win in the end, the ultimate goal at least for the coaching staff, is to groom their players for the next rung in the ladder.

The players on the two teams get live action drills and get to put on display what they have been learning in practice. The junior varsity’s practices with the varsity team and may not get the reps needed to fully understand the system, so the experience they gain during games is immeasurable.

“You just don’t get those reps in practice. They spend most of their time on the scout teams and they don’t get any full speed reps at all.” McCoy said. “The only way to do it is for us to play on Monday night. That way they get some quality team and at least the speed is where it needs to be. I think they take a lot from it.”

The players aren’t the only ones to get a lot out of playing in these games. The coaching staff gets the opportunity to work with the players on more of a one on one level something they normally don’t get to do at the varsity level.

“You really get to identify with your players. You can identify some of the kids that will eventually have to fill some spots,” McCoy said. “We use that more for the identification part of it more than anything. On Friday night we don’t get to coach them. They spend a lot of time just watching and not really getting coached in the way that they will be coached.”

In just the second year of McCoy’s system at Charles Henderson, the Junior Varsity program has grown from barely having enough depth to have a team to putting a quality team on the field that could be successful in the upcoming years. That pipeline doesn’t just start at the junior varsity level but it ultimately starts at middle school, where head coach Will Garner takes the beginning steps to mold good young football players.

“We just started it. We jus started this pipeline or process this year because last year there were things in place that I thought we needed to improve,” McCoy said. “Right now it just the beginning of the process. I think two to three years down the road we are going to see dividends and benefits. Our coaches are doing a great job. We have the right guy and the right group of coaches is doing a really good job.

“To have a chance two or three years from now I think we need to be taking the right steps and we are doing what it takes to get there.”