After years of watching other head coaches, Jim Crowder decided it was time for him to take on the role himself.
Crowder was recently named the head football coach at Central Holmes Christian School. He takes over the Central Holmes program after serving as the defensive coordinator at Pillow Academy in Greenwood.
“I really wanted to be a head coach,” Crowder said. “You have all of these ideas and want to see if they work. You want to do things a certain way and have ideas about how you think practice should be done and if your ideas really work. Until you are the guy, you don’t know if they really work or not. So I guess I got the itch.”
Crowder said he took the job at the end of February but did not get to go through a spring with the team.
"We didn’t get to go through a spring because we didn’t have all of the helmets in,” Crowder said. “So I don’t really know what we have. I started full time this summer and that has been great so far. You wonder if the kids are going to work or not and you want to give everyone a clean slate. You wonder if they are going to buy in. So far, we have had great attendance this summer. Some of the leaders are stepping up. They have really worked hard.”
Crowder said he is hoping to build on a 6-4 season as the Trojans bring back a large junior and senior class.
“We have been lifting four days a week,” Crowder said. “I do summer a little bit different. We do some different football things and have been working on getting the offense and defensive installed. They have been attentive and have done everything I could ask of them.”
Crowder said he hopes he can lead this group to even higher levels.
“I believe we will have about 28-30 in high school,” Crowder said. “We have a really big junior and senior class. There is no question that we could be pretty good. I want them to know they could be pretty good. We have talked about raising the bar and expecting more. But they have to know that you have to work for everything you get. We have a lot of work in front of us.”
So far, Crowder has been pleased with what he has seen.
“I’ve been really pleased with the work ethic and attitude,” Crowder said. “That could change. I understand that you can look good in shorts and not be a good football players. We are pretty big up front but have to get big up front. We have good skill players and a running back that could be special. We’ll just have to see how it comes together.”
The Trojans open the season on Aug. 17 against Amite.
