Jun. 4—TRINITY — Coaches love their cliches.
Whether it’s “take it one game at a time” or “practice makes perfect,” every coach has their own phrase they like to throw around.
“Success breeds success” is another common one, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. It’s something the West Morgan Rebels know well, now that the school is coming off one of its best athletic years in school history.
Starting in the fall, the football team completed its third consecutive undefeated regular season, pushing its regular-season winning streak to 34 games, and won its third consecutive region championship. Meanwhile, the volleyball team reached the Elite Eight of the state tournament.
In the winter the boys basketball team reached its third consecutive Class 4A, Elite Eight, while the girls team reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018.
Finally, in the spring, the baseball team and boy soccer team both reached the Class 4A playoffs and the softball team reached the Class 4A state tournament for the first time since 2014.
Quite the year.
“I think it’s a testament to the leadership we have in place here, the vision they had for this school and what they’ve built here. They understood the importance of getting good people in the building that can lead our kids,” West Morgan football coach Drew Phillips said. “I also think it’s a testament to our kids. They’ve bought into what we’re doing here and put in a lot of hard work.”
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Hitting the weights
Ask any coach of any sport and they’ll likely tell you a key to success is found in the weight room.
West Morgan is no exception as the Rebels believe it’s what has unlocked the school’s athletic potential.
“A few years ago we felt like we had great athletes but we weren’t winning like we thought we should,” Mike Johnson, the school’s athletic director, said. “Me and Dr. (Keith) Harris sat down to figure out what we needed to do and the solution was simple; we needed to get tougher.”
So that’s exactly what the Rebels set out to do and now they feel it has become their identity.
“The weight room is mandatory here. Our athletes don’t have a choice in whether they lift and our coaches don’t have a choice in whether they lift our kids,” Phillips said. “Our athletes build speed and strength, but most importantly, they build confidence. We truly believe we can compete with whoever we step on the field or court against.
“If you work hard in the weight room, it gives back.”
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Sharing is caring
Another key to the West Morgan blueprint of success is having not just good coaches, but coaches who share a vision.
“It helps to have good coaches, but it’s more important for us to have coaches that are all on the same page,” softball coach Morgan Weatherwax said. “We’re a small school, and we share a lot of the same athletes across multiple sports. We can’t have the mindset that ‘my sport is more important’ and thankfully the coaches here want other sports to win as badly as the ones coaching those sports do.”
Weatherwax said the relationships between the coaches played a big part in her team’s run to the state tournament.
“Before our area tournament the basketball coaches fed our team Zaxbys and then before regionals they fed us chicken biscuits with tea bombs,” Weatherwax said. “Our girls got it in their heads that in order to succeed they needed their chicken biscuits and tea bombs so before state the coaches drove all the way to Jacksonville to our hotel and had us breakfast and tea bombs ready.
“I’m not saying that kind of thing only happens at West Morgan, but it certainly is not something you get everywhere.”
A similar vision isn’t the only thing the coaches at West Morgan share.
Being a 4A school, many of the athletes play multiple sports. The Rebels believe having success in one sport helps players in the next.
“Half of my (softball) team was on the basketball team that went to the Sweet 16. When we had a game on the line, I always felt comfortable because they had already experienced this before,” Weatherwax said. “If a player can handle pressure in one sport, that carries over to the next sport.”
Now as the Rebels begin their summer workouts, coaches and players are focused on the next step: winning trophies.
“There’s a lot of excitement around the school and the community right now. We’re going to keep working and building toward bringing home a championship,” Phillips said.
— caleb.suggs@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
