Fair Grove turns whiteboard motivation into district championship reality
· Yahoo Sports
SPRINGFIELD — Josh Evans always writes three things on his whiteboard.
The first-year Fair Grove head coach emphasizes three things that will lead the team to victory. The Eagles met all three of his goals on Friday, Nov. 13.
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Fair Grove defeated Springfield Catholic 47-7 to win the district championship.
“I love seeing these guys have success,” Evans said. “I’ve been really hard on these guys, so to see them be successful gets me juiced up, genuinely.”
On the whiteboard, Evans wrote with a marker that his team must move their feet on contact, allow no big moments and force with violence.
“If we play every rep like it is a big moment, then there is truly no big moment,” Evans said. “Forcing the ball back in with violence, not skipping past. Being violent at the point of the attack."
Those three commands weren’t just written on a board in the locker room. They were lived on the field for all to see in a high-stakes playoff game.
Fair Grove opened the scoring through a rushing touchdown from Austin Azeez. Springfield Catholic would respond with a long rushing touchdown from Sam Boston. The two teams are deadlocked 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.
For the final three quarters, everything went Fair Grove’s way. The Eagles forced four turnovers and stopped the Irish on a 4th-and-inches around midfield. Fair Grove’s Gavin Strong was all over the field, including two interceptions.
Fair Grove quarterback Gavin Thomason was electric behind a fantastic offensive line performance. He scored four touchdowns, featuring short, physical runs and long, lung-bursting scores.
“We’ve been wanting this game all year,” Thomason said. “They couldn’t stop it, so we just kept running it down their throats.”
Along with Thomason, running back Wyatt Hallam totted the rock efficiently. He also added two touchdowns. The dynamic duo was not going to let what happened earlier in the season happen again.
Springfield Catholic took down Fair Grove 27-22 on Sept. 25. Since then, Fair Grove has had this game circled on their schedule. The Eagles have been relentless since their only defeat, outscoring opponents 341-48 in the previous seven games.
“Ever since that game, we’ve been running our butts off in practice,” Hallam said. “We made it happen this time.”
After every win, Fair Grove has celebrated to one specific song.
“I don’t know what it is,” Evans laughed. “I’m getting too old for this.”
“It’s called ‘La Mama de la Mama,’” Hallam said. “It’s a Spanish song, so when it comes on, we get pretty hyped in the locker room.”
Fair Grove hopes to keep dancing and singing together over the next few weeks. The Eagles have another stern test in the Class 2 State Quarterfinals. This is Fair Grove’s first state quarterfinal since 2024.
“We’ve been preaching to everyone what it takes and what it means to get there,” Thomason said. “It really starts with our scout team.”
The Eagles will host Lamar (11-0) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21.
Liam Keating covers high school sports and Missouri State athletics for The Springfield News-Leader. Send stats or information to him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Fair Grove turns whiteboard motivation into district championship reality