HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- The seniors on Phoebus's football roster do not know what it's like not to win a state championship.
"They've got to have that dog in them," Phantoms' senior safety and receiver Noah Jefferson said of what a successful team had to have. "That's all I can really say. They've just got to want it. You've got to want it more than anybody."
"You've got to have that dog in you," added senior running back Davion Roberts. "You've got to be focused. You've got to want it."
After capturing three straight state crowns, the Phantoms are not shying away from talking about a four-peat.
"We all have to embrace it," head coach Jeremy Blunt noted. "The reality is it's going to be talked about whether I bring it up or not, so you have to show these guys how to do it, but do it with respect and that's what we focus on."
"We talk about the state championship," Roberts added. "We talk about it every day, all day, that's all we think about is winning that four-peat."
"We have a blueprint to win already," pointed out Jefferson. "We know what we need to do, we know how we need to do it, we know we need to execute in order to win a championship again."
Phoebus enters the season riding a 35-game winning streak and has claimed victory in 58 consecutive Peninsula District contests. Jeremy Blunt and his staff come into the campaign with the mission of getting his players comfortable being uncomfortable.
"It's our job as coaches to put them in situations that set them up for failure where a practice that you might want to go smooth, it won't be as you think it will be because we're going to put you guys in some stressful situations," noted Blunt.
Blunt and his players know that they enter the season with a giant target on their backs, but that's something they've grown accustomed to. Teams will enter each game with the goal of dethroning the champs and putting an elusive blemish in the Phantoms' loss column. Phoebus says 'bring it on.'
"We love the target," Jefferson said. "We love that everybody's going to give us their best every week we play. We just love the competition, we're just going to continue to ball out every time."
"There's something to be said when you're being chased," added Blunt. "That means you're doing something right, so our job is to continue to push towards our goals, focus on the finish line, focus on the process that gets you to the finish line."
The Phantoms are standing on history, but have all eyes ahead. A state title this season would make Phoebus the first program in the commonwealth to win four consecutive titles on two separate occasions, a chance for this year's group to write its own story.
"We're the last guys," Jefferson said. "We're the four-peat, we're the four-peat guys. We've been here since the beginning of it, so we've just got to come in, we've got to finish what the guys before us started."
"All the right ingredients are in place," pointed out Blunt. " We have a ton of experience, the coaching staff is intact. Every year is going to bring a new situation, each team is going to come have to build their own identity. These kids can get it done."
Phoebus opens its season September 6 at Highland Springs.
