Quistor football pride foundation formed at youth camp
Photo: An Olive Branch youth football camper learns skills running the football during Wednesday’s camp. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
When Marcus Jamison was named new head football coach at Olive Branch High School, Jamison stressed his desire to “Restore the Pride” in the Conquistador program.
There’s been a lot of excitement over the team being generated with new assistants added to the staff this spring and the offseason workouts getting players more involved.
Jamison also knows that ‘restoring the pride’ is an atmosphere that doesn’t just happen, it needs to be built from the ground up and as early as elementary school. That’s why Jamison, his staff and players from the varsity team worked with young, aspiring football players Wednesday in his first youth camp at Poole Field.
Jamison said the players who endured the morning heat outside to begin with and later moved inside the high school building were as old as 12 years old, with one as young as age three.
“We’re trying to get all the kids interacting and showing these little guys what it’s like to be an older guy,” Jamison said.
He said the young kids look up to the older players and the camp gives them that chance to be with those players they want to emulate.
“When I was younger, this is what I lived for, older guys being at the high school,” Jamison said. “When I was these kids’ age, it was my dream to be around them and be able to interact with them and practice. So that’s what we’re trying to do with this group.”
So the morning drills showed the youngsters how to throw, catch, block, run patterns and the other football skills. Coaches were working with the campers on different areas, from offense to defense, the basic techniques of the game. The campers then went inside and were shown the football team locker room.
For the new Quistor football coach, making Olive Branch football fans proud of a program that in recent years that has gone through struggles is important and starts at a young age. Jamison is aware of the prestige there has been in being a Conquistador outside of DeSoto County.
“This is one of the most prestigious programs in the state of Mississippi with the rich history for not only football, but all sports,” Jamison said. “You can go somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, step off the airplane, have on an Olive branch shirt, and somebody knows who you are, where you are from. So we’re trying to get it back to that.”
Recent history has not been kind to the Quistors in football and Jamison wants to return the team to a form fans are more used to. Following a 15-0 state 6A championship season in 2011, Olive Branch hit a dry spell between 2012-2016.
The Quistors reached the 5A semifinals in 2017 and again in 2018, followed by a second-round appearance in 2019. A 5-5 record in 2020 kept Olive Branch out of the postseason and the string has continued since then with Jamison being hired following the 2024 season.
