Hayti football seeking to ride 'tenacity, toughness' back to respectability

Hayti High School junior Isaiah Love works on kickoff returns during a recent practice at the school.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

HAYTI – It wasn’t that long ago that the Hayti High School football program was an intimidating presence on an opponent’s schedule. No one wanted to face the Indians, who took the field displaying speed, athleticism, strength, and toughness.

And the victories piled up.

However, over the past 24 months, that aura has been tackled for a loss, figuratively.

“I love Hayti football,” Hayti coach Dominique Robinson said. “We’ve been in the dark ages for the last two years. It was definitely painful (to watch).”

Following a five-year stint (2017 through 2021) in which he led the Indians to 56 wins and an MSHSAA Class 1 state championship, Robinson stepped away from football to focus on his family and career as a school administrator. And the Indians sank. Immediately.

Hayti has won just three of its last 17 games and Robinson has returned to right the ship.

“Our work ethic is better than it has been in the last two years,” Indian junior Isaiah Love said. “We didn’t have the coaching.”

There is hope on the horizon for the Indian program, and it centers on Robinson, who knows how to achieve success with the program. It also centers on a large sophomore class, who took their lumps a year ago as freshmen but have three full seasons of football staring them in their faces to grow and develop.

One of those young athletes is returning sophomore quarterback JC Ford, who is battling with junior Jvonta Payne for the starting job.

“I’d like to have three quarterbacks if I could,” Robinson said of allowing competition to build within his program.

Indian senior wide receiver Tim Hamilton said both quarterbacks have their strengths.

“They both go through their reads (well),” Hamilton said, “but JC goes through his reads and understands each one of his receivers.”

With Payne, he has a cannon of an arm, according to Hamilton.

:Jvonta can throw it deep,” Hamilton said.

Either quarterback will be handing the ball off to a pair of runners, Love, who is a “finesse” back, according to Robinson, and senior Ricky Bryant, who brings “power” to the Hayti offense.

Hamilton will team up at receiver with junior Jeremy Alexander, senior Jovan Turner, and sophomore KeAnthony Taylor.

The offensive line is a young group of sophomores, who played a lot last fall, along with senior Malachi Harris, who will play a guard position for Robinson.

“The strength of our offense is our ability to pick up things fast,” Robinson said.

For the first time in his head coaching career, Robinson said he is utilizing hand signals, as opposed to wristbands with the play calls on them.

“We’ve been working all summer on that,” Robinson said.

Hayti has “been working all summer,” period, according to Robinson.

“We’ve had a great summer,” Robinson said.

Of the roughly 40 players in the program, Robinson said recently that he had about 75 percent of those athletes who didn’t miss a day of strength training this summer.

Perhaps the strongest Indian may be their youngest.

Freshman nose tackle Jayden Driver walked into the Indian weight room this summer and bench pressed 275 pounds and moved 500 pounds on the squat rack.

“He showed up,” Robinson said, “and I thought ‘We might have to put this kid on the D-line.”

A veteran defender who has been “working his butt off all summer,” according to Robinson is Hayden Cornwell, who can also play center offensively.

“The strength of our defense is our tenacity and toughness,” Robinson said.

Those traits carried Hayti to greatness not long ago, so returning the program with those serving as a foundation should work again.

HAYTI SCHEDULE

(all games at 7 p.m.)