I went to Ste. Genevieve last week to try to separate myth from fact surrounding the Valle Catholic football team.
My fact-finding mission sought to root out the fundamental reasons why the Class 1 powerhouse, tied with Webb City (Class 4) for the most state championships (14) among all teams in Missouri, is so much better than the larger schools they compete against in the I-55 Conference.
Myth: Not every boy at Valle plays football. While that may have been closer to the case a generation ago, head coach Judd Naeger said 33 of the 65 boys at the school are out for the Warriors this season.
Fact: Since Herculaneum beat Valle 41-39 in 2012 to win the conference title, the Warriors have gone 34 games without a loss against Crystal City, Herky, Jefferson, Grandview, St. Pius X and St. Vincent. Valle has won those games by an average score of 56-7.
Myth: Players don’t learn the Valle “system” by the time they’re old enough to walk and continue running it through their senior years. In fact, Naeger said, he doesn’t get the players until they’re freshmen because Valle doesn’t have a junior high program.
Fact: Naeger is one of the most decorated coaches in the state, having guided Valle to five state titles and three undefeated seasons. But the Warriors lost 12-7 to Monroe City in last year’s state championship and only reached the semifinals in 2016.
I got a very good first impression when I met with Naeger in the team’s fieldhouse. Wearing a heavy beard, Naeger talked about why the Warriors are annually able to challenge for a state crown.
“We’ve got really good kids and outstanding parents, and when you have those two things working for you, you have a good chance to win,” said Naeger, who won two state championships as a player at Valle and has been the team’s head coach for 15 seasons.
“We don’t have the luxury to just coach the best kids; we’ve got to coach up all of the kids. We’ve had a lot of kids over the years who may have been overlooked when they were younger and they ended up as solid players by the time they were seniors.”
Valle was at the height of its power in 2014 and 2015, when the Warriors won all 30 games and captured back-to-back Class 1 titles.
Former quarterback Connor Basler threw eight touchdown passes combined in the two final games. Mason Skaggs took over for Basler at QB in 2016 and had a record of 23-4.
As much as 80 percent of the players on Valle this year are legacies of dads, uncles and grandfathers who also played football on the Warriors. Naeger said each generation strives not to let the last one down and that inspires them to a higher level of play in about every game.
“When they hear it from their dads, grandpas and uncles it becomes ingrained in them, but the last few years there’s been undue pressure on them,” Naeger said. “They’re not able to be just high school football players. They have expectations on them that are not fair and at times unreal.
“The last two years, one play here or there, and we’re able to win a state championship. But that changes how they’re perceived when they don’t win it and that’s unfair because they worked just as hard as any teams that did win.”
High school coaches usually are given leniency when their teams go through losing seasons. And even though Naeger’s credentials are impeccable and unquestioned, anything short of a state title at Valle is considered subpar.
“The outside perception isn’t close to reality,” Naeger said. “There’s been years we’ve won a state championship that if you’d seen those kids when they were freshmen you would have said, ‘No way.’ But the kids worked hard and the parents are involved.”
Like other coaches at small schools, Naeger said he is forced to play his charges on both sides of the ball.
“When we have an injury, we have to move four kids around to get our best 11 on the field,” he said. “The last three or four years ,75 percent of our starters have gone both ways and this year it’s 80 percent or higher.”
In most of the I-55 games, the Warriors have such a comfortable lead by halftime they’re able to substitute for their starters for most of the last two quarters. That leads to more playing time for the second string, who take that experience to the field the next year when their numbers are called.
Combine that with the fact that Valle plays almost another half of a season in playoff games while the rest of the I-55 sits idle, the progression feeds upon itself from year to year.
“They play 15 games a year,” said St. Pius X head coach Jerry Woods, whose Lancers were beaten 62-0 by the Warriors last year. “When they go deep into the playoffs they’re getting all those extra reps and practices. That’s to their credit.
“They have a great coaching staff. They have great buy-in by the parents and players. Sometimes we struggle with getting young men to come in to get lifts and runs in. It seems Valle gets better push from their parents.”
Since Valle doesn’t have boys soccer, it doesn’t have to compete for players. St. Vincent, a small Catholic school in Perryville, plays football in the I-55 and has boys soccer.
St. Pius X is the only I-55 team from the county that has to compete for players with its school’s boys soccer team. The Lancers were about evenly split in players (about 40 apiece) between the football and soccer programs when practice began Aug. 6. Woods only has to peek at the soccer practice field to see potential talent he could use.
“I look over there and see defensive backs and receivers we could use, and the soccer team looks at us and thinks the same thing,” Woods said. “It’s hard for small schools to field successful soccer and football teams at the same time. We’ve done it in the past and we think this year will be one of those years.”
If any team is going to end Valle’s stranglehold on the I-55 this year, it’s going to be Jefferson, who are as close in talent to the Warriors as any team has been since the 2012 Blackcats. But Valle has beaten Jefferson by a combined score of 51-16.5 the past two years, so the gap hasn’t closed yet.
Herky used a heavy ground game behind running back Dustin Johnson to beat the Warriors six years ago. Watching the Blue Jays’ top offensive linemen work out last week and knowing Andrew Graves’ rebuilt knee is sturdy and ready to propel him past 5,000 career yards, they might be built to truck the Warriors.
Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly is well versed in Valle football. Rouggly played for Herky in the late 1990s and never suited up against the Warriors, but he knows all about their tradition.
“You think of tradition and community when you think of (Ste. Gen and Valle),” Rouggly said. “And the other thing is, Judd does a hell of a job. You know they will be well coached. He’s got great assistants. He’s got the old timers who volunteer. That all goes hand-in-hand with tradition. They have a commitment of excellence.
“Those kids don’t want to let the team or their community down. They have a true powerful tradition down there. They believe they can win every game.”
It’s Rouggly’s job to make sure the Blue Jays feel that way, too.
“(Valle’s) a team that if you’re undisciplined in any facet of your game, they will expose it,” he said. “They have tall receivers and have had some really good quarterbacks. I know Judd will have them ready to go. We talk quite a bit on the phone, and I’ve told him they make us better. We’re trying as a football program to make them better as well. Our kids firmly believe that they’re going to give them everything they’ve got this year.”
After that 2012 title, the Blackcats have had their ups but mostly downs. They finished 1-9 last year and Dave Cook stepped aside after the season was over. The low point in their rivalry was in 2015, when Valle beat Herky 78-8, and the Warriors have trounced the Blackcats the last two years to the tune of 113-0.
Cody Hunter is the new head coach at Herculaneum and he’ll get his first crack at Valle when the teams meet in Ste. Genevieve on Oct. 12.
“They don’t have to be big. They’re really aggressive,” Hunter said. “They’re coached very well. That’s where I want to get. Herky does have pride and tradition, just like Valle. We were dominant for a very long time. I’d like to take a page out of Valle’s book by getting our alumni back on the sidelines and the community to rally around Herculaneum football.”
Despite the lopsided final scores, Naeger said the conference is competitive and his team never tries to embarrass an opponent.
“We’ve always had an outstanding relationship with the other coaches in the conference,” Naeger said. “Anytime you’re on a football field on Friday night, when you wear the white helmet with the blue V we hope something in our players changes a little bit.”
It does. The Warriors almost always change the V to a W.