Hard work, Penrod bring East Prairie FB back to life in 2024

First-year East Prairie High School football coach Ian Penrod (center) watches his team during training camp this past season at East Prairie.

Dennis Marshall - Standard-Democrat

Following his team’s final game of the 2024 season recently, first-year East Prairie High School football coach Ian Penrod delivered an emphatic answer to just how the Eagles had turned their program around so quickly this fall.

“I’ll be completely honest with you,” Penrod said, “these kids played their butts off.”

That, they did.

Without question, the East Prairie players worked incredibly hard over the offseason, as well as this autumn, and improved from six combined victories over the previous three seasons to an 8-3 mark this year.

“There really isn’t any other way to put it,” Penrod continued. “I wish I could, but there isn’t any other reason.”

That is where Penrod diverged from the truth in his explanation.

Yes, the athletes worked hard, but having Penrod guide your football program is a recipe for success.

“(Coach Penrod) is a very good weight room coach,” third-year Bearcat coach Chad Jamerson said during this past season. “He may be the best weight-room coach that I’ve been around, maybe outside of Aaron King at Cape Central.

“And Ian is a very good defensive coach.”

Jamerson: East Prairie FB will get stronger, better in time

Tom Davis

In each of the past three football seasons, the East Prairie High School program has allowed its opposition to score at least 40 points per game (on average).
That number has dropped to less than 27 this season and was just over 23 points per game entering a Week 4 thrashing (36-0) by Dexter, which is in the midst of having its best season in,...

If you do achieve a feat once, it can be happenstance. But, if the same thing happens twice to a person, now it is who they are.

For the second time, Penrod has taken over a football program and achieved an incredible amount of success – quickly.

Prior to taking the East Prairie job, Penrod led the football program at Portageville High School for four seasons.

He finished 2-7 in his first season but closed his time there by winning 26 of 35 games, including the MSHSAA Class 1 District 1 championship, which was the program’s first such title in two decades.

“Ian does such a great job with any team that he has had,” Jamerson said.

As good as this season was for the Eagles, the future may be even brighter.

East Prairie only had 27 kids in the program this season, but still managed to play a full 8-game junior varsity schedule.

“You don’t get through that,” Penrod said of the junior varsity tests, “with 27 kids if those kids don’t have hearts the size of… I don’t know what.

“Their effort is going to be something that I always talk about.”

The Eagles weren’t frightening most teams in the recent past, but the athletes developed over the past calendar year.

East Prairie had four different players earn First Team All-SEMO Conference Central Division honors this fall, as junior Tavion Ware (running back and punter), and seniors Connor Marcum (offensive athlete and linebacker), Mark Gammons (offensive line), and Braylan Cade (defensive line) were each recognized.

“I told (the team) at the beginning of the year,” Penrod explained, “that I wanted East Prairie to stand for effort and physicality. With just 27 kids, that is a really hard task to do.”

The Eagles also had athletes honored on the Second Team All-SEMO Conference, as well as the Honorable Mention squads. Those athletes included (Second Team) Cade (running back), senior Henery Evans (offensive line), senior Ty Wallace (defensive back), senior Mac Munson (defensive back), (Honorable Mention) senior Brian Bazan (offensive line), Ware (defensive line), junior Seth Fiebig (defensive line), and freshman Cooper McKinley (linebacker).

“Those kids laid it on the line,” Penrod said, “to make sure that (effort and physicality) was the case every night.”

What made the Eagles’ success even more impressive this season was that Penrod’s team didn’t wear down physically. In the final stretch of the season, East Prairie beat Kelly (five wins), Charleston (seven wins), Fredericktown (four wins), and Scott City (five wins) by an average of 30 points per victory.

“This program hasn’t been in the best spot,” Penrod said. “It’s had a lot of ups and downs over the last four to five years. To be able to get it back here, like I told the seniors, they will always be remembered that they were able to bring this (program) back.”