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Barousses join Mannon on his inaugural coaching staff
Editor’s note: This story is the first of two parts. The second part will run in the Oct. 19 edition of the Daily American Republic.
When Jeff Mannon was named the head football coach of the Poplar Bluff Mules earlier this year, he looked to a past mentor to join his coaching staff.
Mannon brought former Mules head coach Mark Barousse back to the sidelines for his fourth coaching stint at Poplar Bluff and also brought in Barousse’s son, Brett, as an assistant.
Brett Barousse played under his father as a head coach and also played under Mannon, who was the team’s defensive coordinator at the time.
“I think it’s an honor to come back and be able to coach at my alma mater that I played at,” Brett Barousse said. “It’s pretty unique experience that I get to be able to coach with my dad and learn a lot from what he has gathered over the years, trying to pass on to me — and also to be able to coach under Coach Mannon.”
Mark Barousse served as the Mules’ head coach from 1997 to 2001, winning district titles in 1998 and 2000, then returned in 2011 for a seven-year stint which saw the team win its most recent SEMO North Conference title in 2017 and go undefeated in the regular season.
As a player, Mannon was a key part of the 1998 and 2000 district championship squads. He said having his former high school coach on his inaugural coaching staff was “awesome.”
“A lot of the stuff I’ve learned in football — my basics, my core belief system, plays and everything else — came from Coach (Mark) Barousse,” Mannon said, “from when he was my head coach in high school, and when he came back in (2011) and coached for those 7-8 years he was here. It is just one of those things where I thought I knew football, and then he opens your eyes to the stuff you don’t know — and made me a lot better coach because of it.”
Mark Barousse also was a part of the Mules’ last undefeated regular season in 1990 as the team’s offensive coordinator, when the Mules finished 10-0, won a district title and advanced to the Class 5A state quarterfinals.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been an assistant, so I’m enjoying what I do,” Mark Barousse said. … “It’s one of those things I enjoyed. Jeff helped me all those years as defense coordinator and he knows the defense and knows what we did and stuff. So I thought, it’d be an easy fit and stuff.”
Both district championship squads Mannon played on were examples of beating the odds. The 1998 squad started 3-5 and lost its district opener in overtime to Jackson before beating Vianney and Cape Central — the latter in triple-overtime — to lock up a district title. Then two years later, the Mules upset undefeated (and No. 3 in Class 5A) Jackson to win another district crown.
“He always had a competitive environment where it was always ones on ones,” Mannon said of his high school coach. “We were always full contact, and it was something that just bred competitiveness between us. With that in practice, I thought the guys that I went to school with, we became a real close group the whole time we were (here). And then it lasted (after) we (left) too, because those younger guys under us saw how it was supposed to be and everything else.”
Mannon was a freshman when Mark Barousse returned in 1997 and his class was the first to play all four years under him.
“They started implementing the things he wanted to do in the run-and-shoot because we had gone from triple option at the time to the run-and-shoot package (in 1997),” Mannon said. “It took a few years to get it under the belt. But I think our sophomore year (in 1998), a bunch of us were playing. That was the first time we’d won districts since 1993. And that’s what I’m trying to model. Some of the stuff we’re doing these days is what we did back then — to get the team to buy in, the community to buy in and everything like that again.”
Mannon said Mark Barousse brings stability to any program he is part of — something that Mannon himself wants to do as a head coach.
“It’s just the same thing that he brings to every program is just stability and accountability,” Mannon said. You get a certain offense running from the top to bottom and a certain defense from the top to bottom. And then these kids each year, you can work on technique more than installing offense and defense each year. And I’ve tried to do that all the way down to flag football in first grade. They’re running our same offensive plays as they’re going to (someday) run on Friday night, so those kids get to perfect it as they go. Then everything else is just being consistent — the weight room and being consistent in the offseason.
“I didn’t get a full offseason yet this year. We started in the summer (as) it was a transition period in the spring with track and everything they (had) going on. We’re going to focus real, real hardcore in the offseason (after this season) on getting stronger, getting faster, working on our fundamentals and stuff like that.”
Next weekend, the Barousses will talk about what it is like to coach alongside each other. Mark Barousse also will reflect on being part of the program’s renaissance under Paul Webber from 1989-91 and on his experience of playing professional football with the USFL’s Houston Gamblers.