HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- 2021 saw Phoebus football claim its eighth state championship in program history, all of those coming since 2001, making a big target on the Phantoms' backs even larger.
"Everybody's coming at your neck," senior safety Jordan Bass pointed out. "You're the defending champs. Everybody wants to beat you."
Last season, however, is in the rear-view mirror when it comes to this year's group. All eyes are forward to what's next. As always, expectations for the program are sky-high.
"Every day it was drilled into my head," Bass said of his earlier high school years. "Success is expected. Phoebus is known for winning."
"It's a tradition here," added head coach Jeremy Blunt. "It's a culture here. It has been for many years and who are we to stop that?"
Blunt knows that culture well from several different points of view. He helped Phoebus to a state championship during his senior year as a player. Now he defends the crown once again as the Phantoms' head coach. He's gone from being in the players' shoes to guiding them.
"I walked it with them and I talked it with them, just a different era," Blunt said. "Everything that comes out of my mouth and the guys here, there are many former Phantoms here as well, everything that comes out of our mouths is something that we've practiced."
The program continues to compete at a high level and that means facing top competition head on. One of the biggest learning experiences during last year's march to the Class 3 state crown may have been the Phantoms' only defeat, a shutout loss at fellow state champion Oscar Smith. That match-up returns to the schedule this fall.
"We came in there overconfident and didn't have a good head on our shoulders," Bass recalled. "They showed us what happens if you don't and that just really reset us for everything else."
"We took a whooping last year," added Blunt. "We're not going to shy away from it. Who we are here, we're all about facing whatever challenge is in front of us and if we can put a challenge in front of us in order to get us better and help us achieve our goal, we're going to do so."
The goal, of course, is back-to-back state titles. Phoebus is also chasing a 25th straight winning season and a seventh consecutive campaign (excluding the shortened spring of 2021 schedule) of double digit victories. However, Blunt points out that all of that history is in the past. Not it's time for his 2022 team to define itself.
"Every team is going to have their own identity," the head coach noted. "We can't attach ourselves to last year's success. Guys who graduated, those guys are no longer here so it's time for that next group of guys to step up and make a name for themselves."
The Phantoms kick off the season on September 1 when they host Menchville at Darling Stadium.
