The OHS football team will officially begin their season on Aug. 30 with the Crosstown Classic game against the Lafayette Commodores. Last season, the Chargers made their way back into the playoff bracket after missing the playoffs for the first time in seven years during the 2022 season. The Chargers are led by head coach Chris Cutcliffe who is entering his ninth season at Oxford High School.
Starting in early June, the Chargers began their summer practices giving the team lots of time to grow and develop for the upcoming season. Cutcliffe shares how their strong leadership helped them get better over the offseason.
“A great group of seniors led the way in summer, so I was really proud of the work that we accomplished this summer,” Cutcliffe said. “We had 28 players with perfect attendance, so that was really awesome to see.”
One of those senior leaders on the Oxford team is senior captain Ja’lyen Judson. Judson explains how he wanted to help grow the team’s relationship on and off the field throughout the summer and offseason.
“My ninth and tenth grade year I felt like we didn’t fellowship as much as we should have,” Judson said. “We wanted to fellowship more this year and we wanted to be a guy in the locker room that everybody looked up to.”
With every new season, new challenges approach. One of the biggest challenges for the team this year was the loss of their starting quarterback from last season. Many younger players have stepped up to fill that role including sophomore Drew Dean. Senior wide receiver Levi Blount shares how he has seen Dean step into the starting role.
“I think Drew has done a great job of being coachable this summer,” Blount said. “I feel like he’s done everything very well. We’ve helped build him up and shown him how we’re not perfect and that it’s good to make mistakes to build on.”
Despite the loss of many players on both sides of the ball, other positions have a stacked lineup of returning players.
“I think we have a veteran group in the offensive line, which is a lot of fun to have some guys that have played a lot of football there,” Cutcliffe said. “I think they’ve done a great job. I’ve been really pleased, offensively, getting veteran receivers as well. Those are two groups that have a whole lot of experience.”
Every new season also brings new players to the roster. Blount describes how beneficial it is to have those new faces at practice training with all the returning players.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces this year which I think helps everybody get better,” Blout said. “We’ve been matching up against each other for a long time and I think it’s good to have new faces to compete against because there’s no better way to prepare than that.”
With lots of time to improve before the season, Cutcliffe explains one of the aspects that the team was able to build on this offseason.
“I think our team’s speed overall has improved,” Cutcliffe said. “We’ve got a lot of guys on the field that can really run across the board, so I think that’s a huge asset.”
In football, a trust between teammates is one of the most important things players need to be successful. Judson shares how they have been able to gain trust with each other and are able to use that to make them better players.
“It’s really important that we can trust each other,” Judson said. “If I can trust my teammate then he doesn’t have to worry about any problems. I think it’s also important because we can tell each other when we did wrong and we won’t get mad at each other cause we know it will help us in the long run.”
With one of the main team goals this year being to grow relationships on the off the field, Blount shares how important it is to have those relationships.
“We don’t just play football together, we’re brothers,” Blount said. “We spend time together almost every day going to eat or playing games and I think that really helps us to be better on the field.”
Judson describes how everything that the team has done throughout the entire offseason has helped them develop as a team and get better.
“We’ve watched a lot of film this summer which I think has really helped us grow,” Judson said. “I think even our seven on seven helped us grow by seeing how we need to get better. Having so many new guys on the team, it’s important that we know each other and what to do to get better.”
Since joining the program in 2016, Cutcliffe has been able to build his coaching staff to help make the team as good as they can be. Blount explains why he thinks Oxford’s coaching staff is the best there is.
“I would say that we have the best high school football coaches in the state of Mississippi,” Blount said. “There is such a diverse group and I feel like we’re all able to get a little bit of everything.”
