EMCC and Me

This week I am writing about the Netflix Original, Last Chance U. Last Chance U is a documentary series that follow East Mississippi Community College and their football team during the 2015 season in Season One of the show, and the 2016 season during Season Two. As a former football player and a current collegiate player, I was curious to compare the players experience with mine and also the coaching styles from the EMCC staff and my football coaches from high school as well as my college coach.

As far as experiences go, my high school football story was pretty full of success just like the players of EMCC. At the start of Season One the program is currently building on a twenty four game winning streak, the second longest streak ever and only two wins from the current record. With the streak they have won back-to-back National Championships and five strait District Championships. Comparing that to my high school football days is almost impossible, with the exception of winning the Conference Championship all four years that I played. Another aspect that stood out to me was how the program started from the bottom and gradually made its’ way to the best. Before coach, Buddy Stephens, took control of the team, the team would only win maybe two to three games a year, and had the worst facilities in the state. At my high school, before the current coach took over, we went three straight years with winless seasons and had not made it to the playoffs in ten years. But even after all the years without success, the current coach has made it to the playoffs in all twenty seven of his years as head coach and is about to win his 300th game as head coach, along with 7 appearances in the State Championship game, and twelve Conference Championships.

The coaching at EMCC is nothing short of crazy, and that is putting it lightly. Head coach, Buddy Stephens, is an old school coach with a new school scheme. To keep his players in line he uses a lot of vulgar language and also uses conditioning as a punishment. Once you get past the bad though, Coach Stephens has created a dynasty at EMCC and an expectation of excellence for its football program. With my experiences, it was about the same, but without the vulgar language, until I got to college. In high school the occasional curse word would slip, but only for motivation or a good butt chewing. Now in college, cursing is expected and happens often no matter what the situation. It could just be a greeting from one of the coaches or the obvious angry yelling.