2025 HSFT Stop #30: Shannon
SHANNON, MS (WCBI)- Shannon football went 8-3 last season, with their season ending just two games short of a state championship opportunity. With a group of guys that are eager to get back on the field, they can’t help but use it as fuel to the fire this season.
“We got it (‘unfinished’) on our backs. It’s our slogan that we go by every day,” linebacker Jackson Loving said. “We just want to do better than we did last year and tell them that Shannon’s back.”
To the Red Raiders, unfinished business is more than a slogan. It’s a mindset.
“We were kind of robbed,” quarterback Dashaun Clifton said. “That’s how we feel. We feel like we were robbed, and that’s what the unfinished business means. We were robbed, so we just need to go get what’s ours.”
The chase to the top starts with mentality. Head coach Ken Topps is expecting more from this year’s squad, though.
“We just have to have the expectation that we’re grinding for more,” Topps said. “That’s what we looked at this off-season. We have some unfinished business that we’ve got to take care of, and that’s just building the mentality that we’ve got to finish games. We’ve got to have a mindset where when we get up on top we’ve got to finish it out.”
Topps is teaching his players the importance of teamwork, and Clifton believes that if they stick together, they can finish what they’ve started.
“We need to all stay on that one page, and we all just need to work hard and stay working hard to be ready for the moment,” Clifton said. “If we are all ready for the moment, then there’s nothing that can stop us.”
It’s more than showing up; it’s about commitment to the grind every single day.
“To see them take relentless effort and preparation and commitment to the entire process,” Topps said. “Looking at it from that standpoint, if they take it into game preparation and practice preparation and every single day they come out ready to get better than the day before, then that’ll take us in the right direction.”
Shannon will begin the journey to finish business on August 29 against Olive Branch.
