Dexter football takes first step in 'establishing culture' under Jamerson

First-year Dexter High School football coach Chad Jamerson instructs a Bearcat student-athlete during the team's first practice of 2022 training camp on Monday at Charles Bland Stadium in Dexter.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

DEXTER – The 2022 edition of Dexter Bearcat football is going to be an evolution. The squad of 50-plus student-athletes are young and inexperienced, BUT are eager to learn, according to first-year Bearcat coach Chad Jamerson, and Monday’s initial day of OFFICIAL practice was just that, a learning experience.

“The weather really put a wrench in our plans,” Jamerson said.

The Bearcat players and coaches took to the beautiful turf of Charles Bland Stadium with fervor, only to be sent back inside a while later when lightning was detected in the area. Thus, marked the first dose of adversity this season for the Bearcats.

“We came out with great intensity,” Jamerson said. “Our kids came out and were working really hard.”

And?

“And then the lightning came,” Jamerson continued, “and there is a 20-minute delay. We had to go into the locker room, and it just took some of the air out of our kids.”

Jamerson is in his first season of guiding the Bearcats after serving last season as an assistant coach at Cape Central under legendary coach Kent Gibbs.

The former East Prairie High School head coach and former Eagle player, himself, did acknowledge there was some productive work accomplished, but he said there needs to be a lot more of that type of diligence moving forward.

“We had a good practice,” Jamerson said. “But we can’t settle with good. We’ve got to focus every day on improvement because we are trying to reestablish our program standards.”

There are few schools in MSHSAA that can boast of the facilities that the Dexter Schools have invested in. However, the success of the football program – in terms of victories ON the field – has lagged in the past decade.

Dexter finished 6-5 last season, which was the only winning season the program has had since finishing 9-2 in 2011.

“We want to establish our culture,” Jamerson said, “and that is a punch-the-clock mentality, that works hard and relentlessly competes, gives great effort, is accountable, and is always tough.”

The Bearcats “are young,” according to Jamerson, and the program did graduate every All-SEMO Conference player it had in 2021. So, grinding daily is the only pathway to where Jamerson aspires his team to venture.

“If we can come out and follow those values every single day,” Jamerson explained, “and focus on our mission of getting better every day, then I feel like we can be in a good place in 10 weeks.”

The Bearcats open the 2022 regular season at Scott City on Aug. 26 at 7 p.m.

The Bearcats fell to the Rams last season 27-6 and opened the 2021 season with three consecutive defeats. However, Dexter rallied to win six of its final eight games.

“We don’t just want to settle for good,” Jamerson said. “We want to be great.”