By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASS CHRISTIAN — In his first season as the head football coach at Pass Christian High School, all Jeff Stockstill did was guide the Pirates to one their most successful seasons on the gridiron in school history.
The question now becomes can Pass Christian duplicate that success from last year in Stockstill’s second season at the helm of the Pirates.
Pass Christian went 9-3 overall and advanced to the Class 4A South State semifinals for the first time ever in the history of the program. The Pirates won their first two Class 4A South State playoff games, also a first for the squad, before falling to Columbia. Columbia went on to play in the state championship game.
“We lost a lot from that senior class last year, but they kind of helped set the tone for our success,” Stockstill said, in a recent interview. “We had a good year last season. They got a taste of playoff success, and hopefully we can carry that on.
“When the players own it and the players take responsibility for it and they start leading by example then your team can really grow.”

The Pirates went 7-2 in the regular season, their best regular season mark since 1975. The nine wins overall last season for Pass Christian was just one victory short of tying for the most wins in a single season in school history which came in that 1975 campaign when the Pirates went 10-1.
Offensively, Stockstill lost quarterback Ladd Scribner and versatile standout Terry Patton among others from last year’s team, but one huge cog on offense returns in the form of tailback Jaquez Alexander Dedeaux. As a junior, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Dedeaux had 208 carries for 1,472 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns.
“We’ll have a small senior class this season, but they’ll carry most of the load for us,” Stockstill added.
The Pirates also lost defensive standout Jaydn Acker who led the team with seven sacks on the season. Senior linebacker Aiden Jones returns to shore up the PCHS defense.
Pass Christian opens up the season against longtime neighboring rival Long Beach on the road on Friday, Aug., 30th in the annual “Oyster Bowl”.
“I have been doing this over 20 years,” Stockstill concluded. “You’ve just got to get through the summer and then once that first week of August hits, it just feels a whole lot different. It’s just my time of year.”