Prior to last season, there’s a long list of things the Bay High football program hadn’t done since 2012.
But that’s no longer the case at stop number 18 on News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days where the Tigers already have the oven pre-heated to 350.
Cornerback/ Safety Ashton Lang said, “We don’t want to go back to that same old Bay High, 0-9, 0-10, stuff like that. We love winning.”
Head Coach Jeremy Turcotte said, “These guys have set their own personal goals. They’ve worked their butt off in the off-season. Coming off of last season, we have preached and preached and preached that last season is over. Bay High has never made the playoffs three years in a row, never in the history of the school. So, we always talk about what are we going to do next.”
2021 was the year of the Tiger in Bay St. Louis where memories of 2012 came roaring back to life for a resurgent Bay High football program predicated on brotherhood. “Team chemistry is 100 percent. Team, we’re all 100 percent.”
Right Guard Gavn Bullock said, “My freshman year, nobody wanted to listen to each other. Nobody really got along. Now it’s like a family. We all listen to each other. We all talk about whatever we need to. It’s like a family now.”
The Tigers becoming overnight contenders in Jeremy Turcotte’s second season as head coach, capping off the non-district portion of their schedule with a mark of 4-1 and a statement win over crosstown rival St. Stanislaus. “Definitely changed a lot of momentum for us, if I’m being honest. We all got way more into it. We were all more excited, if that makes sense.”
“Just like my man Gavn said, after the SSC game, that was a good rivalry game for us.”
After reclaiming the Crab Trap for the first time since 2012, the Tigers posted a district mark of 2-2, good enough for a second-place finish in Region 8 Class 4A as well as their first home playoff game since 2012 and their first playoff win since 2012, a 39-33 triumph over Quitman. “There was a lot of people crying that day, a lot.”
“The high point was just getting past the playoffs. Like the SSC game and the Pass game, those were rivalry games, but those weren’t as important as getting past the playoffs.”
The magic ran out in a second-round loss to eventual state champion Columbia, but again, the overall record of 8-4, the most wins since 2012 thanks in large part to a perfect 5-0 mark in one-possession games.
All the above setting the stage for another step forward in 2022 for a program that certainly knows its way around the kitchen. “Bake the cake. I tell them every day; we’ve given you the ingredients. The school district, the community has given us great ingredients. We don’t want for anything. They work themselves to death. When those lights come on and that whistle blows on Friday night, they’ve just got to go out and bake the cake.”
Free safety Vincent Lan said, “Bake the cake. All the work we put in, the sweat, tears, all the blood, just got to play.”
This season, the Tigers will be without 1,200-yard rusher Noah Cutter, but they do bring back sophomore Quarterback Xander Ladner, one of about a dozen returning starters to go along with 15 or so seniors, nine of them being four-year guys and at least seven of them starting on defense. The point being, Bay High is deep. Wide receiver/ safety Layland Adams said, “I love it because we all know what we’re doing, and we don’t even have to really communicate to know what we’re doing, to be honest.”
“We have about 29 guys that we are in no way, shape or form afraid to put out there on a Friday night.”
For everything the Tigers have already accomplished, the job under the water tower still not done until they blow out every last candle on the cake. “We’ve got all the stuff we can do to be great. But at the end of the day, we have to live up to our potential.”
“We don’t want it to be the best, but we want it to be our best – our best season that Bay High has ever had.”
“We do want more. We always want more. It’s just not enough. We always want more. We crave more, and we’re going to take more.”
“We want a district championship. That’s my goal. We want to show that we can play with anybody and we should be on everybody’s radar. That’s what these kids and I are aiming to prove. That’s what we work so hard for.”
The Tigers open up their 2022 campaign with a road game at West Harrison on August 26th.
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