Semoball

Former Jackson FB coach applying lessons learned in Ste. Genevieve

Former Jackson High School assistant football coach Jay Pope now serves as the head coach at Ste. Genevieve. The Dragons faced Kennett on Friday in Ste. Genevieve.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

STE. GENEVIEVE – You have to give Jay Pope credit for trying.

A year ago, he was an assistant football coach at Jackson High School, and he vowed to arrive at the school prior to Indian head coach Brent Eckley in the morning just one time.

“It didn’t matter what time I left (for work),” Pope said, “I couldn’t beat him to the office.”

Pope learned a lot in his single season working with the Jackson football program during the 2019-20 school year, and he is now applying those lessons as the head coach in his hometown of Ste. Genevieve, as he has led the Dragons to a 2-2 mark this fall.

“One,” Pope said of his experience at Jackson, “(Eckley) does an amazing job. He’s a hall of famer. But two, he does a tremendous job of coaching coaches. He pushes you and encourages you to be your best self, not just as a coach, but as a person.”

Pope has directed the Ste. Genevieve players with that message since taking over the program and it is sinking in. A victory this Friday at winless Fredericktown will give Ste. Genevieve its first 3-2 start since 2018.

The Dragons got annihilated by Pope’s alma mater, Valle Catholic, earlier this season. However, seven days later, Ste. Genevieve gave Class 3 11th-ranked Kennett everything it could before falling in the final moments 40-38.

“I don’t think we learned anything (new) about them,” Pope said of his players. “We knew who our kids were.”

He does now, but he didn’t initially.

One of the many lessons that Pope brought with him from Jackson was working hard and working early. That meant the Dragon student-athletes would be going full-bore by 5:30 a.m. each day.

“We get up at 5:30 every morning and we start lifting and we practice,” Pope said. “At first, (the players) weren’t quite sure that this was something that they wanted to do. But then the buy-in happened and that is what you saw (against Kennett).”

Pope graduated from Valle Catholic in 2006 and got his start in coaching the Warriors four years later. He moved over to Ste. Genevieve and helped the Dragons advance to the Class 3 District 1 title game in 2019.

Jackson happened to have a coaching position open prior to last year and his relationship with Eckley led to him taking the position.

Pope worked with the defensive backs and handled the defensive scouting assignment each week for the Indians, as they crushed the rest of MSHSAA en route to an MSHSAA Class 5 state championship.

“Coach Eckley forced me to grow more as a person,” Pope said, “and I was able to carry that over into coaching. His philosophy is, and we tell our kids (at Ste. Genevieve) every day, is to be the best version of yourself today. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Yesterday doesn’t matter. Right now matters.”

That is precisely how Pope got the Dragons to put a bad loss to Valle Catholic behind it and battle Kennett fiercely.

“That is the biggest thing that I took away from Jackson,” Pope said, “is that pursuit of excellence.”

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