Flashes, Brogdon still adjusting to new roles

Published 4:00 am Saturday, July 5, 2025

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St. Aloysius football player Walt Andrews lifts weights during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius football head coach Bumper Brogdon leads his team through a conditioning drill during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius football player James Tate does a push-up during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius football player Ace Oglesby does the bench press during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius football head coach Bumper Brogdon watches his team go through a conditioning drill during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius football players do a conditioning exercise during a summer workout. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Like all first-time head coaches, Bumper Brogdon is spending the summer figuring out all the little ways the job is different from being an assistant.

Designing an offense or defense that works with the available talent, or learning names is the easy part — and also one of a hundred different items that are suddenly on his to-do list at St. Aloysius.

“The football part of it is the same. You bring them out, you work them out, you make sure you’re taking attendance,” Brogdon said. “I think the biggest adjustment for me is all the other stuff that comes along with being a head coach that you know is going on but you never had to do it — the communication with parents and community, setting up things like media day and making sure all of that lines up. That part is not a challenge, it’s just new.”

Brogdon was an assistant at Warren Central from 2000 to 2009, coached another year at Germantown in 2018, and spent last year as St. Aloysius’ defensive coordinator. He was promoted to head coach in April when Walker Mosby stepped down after one season.

Brogdon knows what a successful program looks like and how it operates. A big part of that, he said, is building a winning culture by raising expectations. Little things like cleaning up the fieldhouse or not cutting reps off a summer conditioning workout eventually create the right mindset for everyone, he said.

“Everything has its place and everything has its purpose. So that structure and discipline, I try to get that instilled into them from the littlest aspect to the biggest aspect,” Brogdon said. “If they know how to dress and where things go in their locker, and procedures, it just sets a tone for them. I think they’re happier as people because they know what to expect and then it’s a matter of meeting the expectation.”

Bringing in good people helps as well. Brogdon said his two assistants, James Goodman and Buddy Wooten, have both done a good job this summer seeing and sharing his vision.

“They have both been a blessing. They came in unselfish, get their hands dirty. I couldn’t ask for two better ones,” Brogdon said.

Wooten, who will serve as offensive coordinator, is an especially big piece of the puzzle. He and Brogdon were childhood friends who also coached together at Warren Central for a number of years.

Having two coaches who know each other so well both personally and professionally has helped with the transition to a new era of St. Al football, Brogdon said.

“It’s extremely beneficial,” Brogdon said. “Knowing a guy for so long, coaching with him for so long, you know what his tendencies are and the things that he’s thinking. There’s a lot of non-verbal communication. It takes a long time to build that, but it’s there with me and him for sure.”

Brogdon also knows the Flashes pretty well after spending last season at the school as both a coach and a health and physical education teacher.

St. Al has endured one of the most difficult eras in its proud history recently, with a streak of six consecutive losing seasons and only one winning record since 2015.

There was some light at the end of the tunnel, however, after some 2024 highlights. The Flashes snapped a 23-game losing streak last September, added another win over Manchester Academy in October, then pulled off a stunning five-overtime upset of Winston Academy in the first round of the MAIS Class 5A playoffs. It was St. Al’s first postseason victory since 2015.

Even more encouraging, Brogdon said, is the 2025 roster. A number of players who endured the lean years while playing as eighth-, ninth- and 10th-graders are finally growing into seasoned upperclassmen.
There are 11 seniors among the 31 players on the varsity roster.

“I expect all 11 of our seniors to start. A lot of them will play both ways,” Brogdon said. “And then our junior class is a pretty good class, too. A lot of offensive and defensive linemen. They played as sophomores. The freshmen we did have who played last year are well seasoned.”

Building some roster depth, Brogdon said, will help the Flashes to finally exit their doldrums. While most of this year’s junior and senior classes were pressed into service early in their careers, Brogdon sees a time soon when their successors won’t have to do that. There are 37 players on the junior varsity roster.

“You only get what mommy and daddy send you, but where I would like to see the program get is where we don’t even dress freshmen on Fridays. In order to do that you’ve got to have some quality depth. That will come if we can start to win and get more kids out,” Brogdon said.

Of all the little things, winning is the one big thing the Flashes still need to take care of — and there’s a chance to do it early in the schedule.

The Flashes open the season Aug. 22 at home against Discovery Christian, which started its football program in 2021 and is in its first season as an 11-man team. In Weeks 3 and 4 they are at Manchester Academy and home vs. Clinton Christian, who accounted for two of their three wins last season.

Gaining some early confidence and momentum might get more people to join the team, and create a snowball effect that leads to more winning and more momentum.

“Just looking down the pipeline, if you take what we have right now I see it moving in that direction. But you have to create a product in the program that makes it attractive for people to come and play,” Brogdon said. “Like (longtime Warren Central coach Robert) Morgan used to say all the time, ‘Winning solves everything.’”

2025 St. Aloysius schedule
Aug. 22 — Discovery Christian
Aug. 29 — at Tri-County
Sept. 5 — at Manchester
Sept. 12 — *Clinton Christian
Sept. 19 — Cathedral
Sept. 26 — *Amite School Center
Oct. 3 — Open date
Oct. 10 — at Washington School
Oct. 17 — *at ACCS
Oct. 24 — Indianola Academy
Oct. 31 — at Madison-St. Joseph
*MAIS District 3-3A games

2024 St. Aloysius results
Adams County Christian 41, St. Aloysius 14
Cathedral 34, St. Aloysius 10
East Rankin 29, St. Aloysius 14
*Tri-County 39, St. Aloysius 0
*St. Aloysius 19, Clinton Christian 6
*Central Hinds 21, St. Aloysius 13
Riverfield 41, St. Aloysius 5
Columbia Academy 28, St. Aloysius 7
St. Aloysius 28, Manchester 7
*Winston Academy 27, St. Aloysius 12
p-St. Aloysius 33, Winston Academy 27, 5OT
p-Bowling Green 34, St. Aloysius 6
*MAIS District 2-4A games
p-MAIS Class 5A playoff games

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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