Good Sports: May keeping it fun in Scott City

Scott City football coach Jim May in his high school office, Dec. 20, 2019.

Jeff Long ~ jlong@semoball.com

Good Sports is a weekly feature appearing in the Southeast Missourian and online at Semoball.com. It profiles the life of a person connected to sports and allows readers the opportunity to know the people who are impacting athletics throughout Southeast Missouri in a deeper way. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Today: Jim May, 49, head football coach, Scott City High School. A Ram himself, May graduated in 1989. He continued his education at Quincy, at Arkansas State and at Southeast Missouri State. May was a defensive coordinator for three years under coach Charlie Vickery, then spent a year as head coach at Perryville before taking the helm of his alma mater more than a decade ago. May has posted winning seasons in three of his last four campaigns, with his best mark, 11-2, coming in 2019 – also his first Class 2 District 1 championship. In the just-completed season, his former mentor, Vickery, served under May as the Rams’ offensive coordinator.

JL: This school has changed since you last walked the halls as a student here in 1989.

JM: Yes, in fact, the (auxiliary) gym we walked through to get to my (high school) office was a practice field back when I played for the Rams.

JL: The dust has settled from your finest season as a coach and I vividly recall your last game – the playoff loss at home to Lutheran North, 57-8, on a cold and rainy night. We have a picture in the paper of the guys doing a belly flop in the mud.

JM: Our kids were not ready for it to end. The truth is that football is the greatest game ever. It’s not even close.

JL: Since it’s so recent and raw in your memory, say more about the Lutheran North game on Nov. 22.

JM: Well, as you know, MSHSAA (Missouri State High School Activities Association) moved us up to Class 2 just before the season started. Our enrollment ticked up just enough. That decision meant we inherited Lutheran North in the playoffs. If we’d played that team 100 times, we would have lost 100 times. There’s a chance we may go back to Class 1 for 2020.

JL: The die was cast by halftime when you were down 42-8.

JM: I told our team in the locker room that we had 24 more minutes to be together and then it’s over, so go have some fun.

JL: I must say I’ve not heard a high school coach emphasize “fun” as much as you do.

JM: Football is a hard game played by tough people. It’s not always going to be fun (but) I believe it is my responsibility to make it a fun experience. (This game) is too hard if you don’t have fun. When I played (fullback), it was tougher than now, but it was still fun. There was a lot less to do back in (my) day; it was more automatic to go to the game. Now, if you’re team isn’t that good, people will find other things to do.

JL: What do you do to keep it enjoyable for the boys?

JM: We do things to make memories. On an off day during school this past season, we had a speaker come in and then we went bowling and had pizza. We’ve played Trivial Pursuit, we’ve gone putt-putt golfing. In the ‘80s everybody played football; there wasn’t anything else to do. Now, the boys have many options and if it’s not fun, they’ll leave. We’ve also done charitable work. Our juniors and seniors went out and got donations to help a particular family.

JL: Anything else along these lines?

JM: We have a “Word of the Week.” We come up with a word and then try to find a song to match it. One week it was “unsatisfied.” We used a song by Vanilla Ice and stretched while we listened. The boys are more than football players. They’re just kids. A big part of our job is keeping them fresh.

JL: You know the boys are on social media. Are you?

JM: No. Facebook seems like it could be awesome someday but right now, it’s a distraction I don’t need. There are harsh words posted and I don’t want to worry about them. Right now, nothing good will come from me being on social media.

JL: At the end of the Lutheran North game, you were pretty emotional.

JM: All these kids, these 17 seniors – including my son Jimmy, Joe Panagos, Spencer Stratman, Noah Braun – these guys have been in my house and I’ve been to their summer baseball games. Jimmy (winner of the Carr Trophy - emblematic of the best high school football player in Southeast Missouri) has been with me in football in some fashion since he was six. It’ll be weird without him this coming summer. It’ll be different to see them all move on. Braun (SEMO Conference West Lineman of the Year)? Boy, it takes heart to play on the O-line. It’s not always easy to do a thankless job all the time.

JL: Say a little more about Jimmy.

JM: It takes a lot to be the best in an entire region but for (Jimmy) to do it at his size (5-foot-5, 150 pounds), it is even more impressive.

JL: You talked about the seniors moving on. Are you in a rebuild?

JM: Let me put it this way. I remember my first year (2009), we had 21 boys total. Notice the change. We hardly had enough uniforms for the 2019 team. Assuming they all come back, we’ll have 10 juniors returning, plus 12 sophomores, 19 freshmen and 20 8th graders are in the pipeline.

JL: How else do you get players?

JM: You walk the halls. You recruit. The boys encourage other boys to come out for the team. “Give it a try – you might like it.”

JL: You said you do something special in the summer.

JM: When school ends, in the first weekend of June usually, we all go to camp at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. 2020 will be the third year in a row we’ve done it. We’re together, we look ahead, and we get after it.

JL: Will Coach Vickery be back to call plays for a second season in 2020?

JM: I don’t know yet. We haven’t talked about it much. But let me say this about Coach V – he’s a living legend, a god among men.

JL: Talk about being a hero. You must be one to the folks around Scott City given your record in recent years.

JM: I distance myself a lot from the pats on the back. Winning solves a lot of problems but I can’t let myself get too high or too low.

JL: Is there any way to relax during the season?

JM: I force myself to set aside time otherwise the schedule just wears you down. Saturday afternoon is my time. I watch college football or go to Mom and Dad’s for dinner. But Sunday, it’s back to work.

JL: Some might say that when Jimmy and Panagos and Stratman and Braun and the other seniors go, it’ll be the end of an era for Scott City football.

JM: I’ve had six years with those boys – coaching them, working with them on strength and conditioning, so yeah, I get that. Now, a new era starts. But now that my time with this particular group of guys is over, you look back on it and you think it was an unbelievable experience. Even with the bad, it was a lot of fun.