Restoring the pride in Olive Branch football
Photo: Marcus Jamison, named Wednesday as new head football coach for the Conquistadors.. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
Dec 18, 2024-Olive Branch High School announced Wednesday morning that DeSoto Central defensive coordinator and associate head coach Marcus Jamison is the new head football coach of the Conquistadors. Jamison will take the reins held the past four seasons by Jason Russell.
Jamison takes over a football program that has a rich tradition and history, but players and fans of the Quistors haven’t enjoyed success like it had back in the days of 2011, when Olive Branch rambled through to a 6A state championship with a Scott Samsel-led squad that went 15-0. Jamison said he wants that success to return.
“Our focus is #RTP, ‘Restoring the Pride,’” Jamison said. “We’ve got to get that pride back into this program. I want to see a lot of former players who have been around this program come back, see our kids and tell them what it was like to be at the peak of everything.”
The Quistor football team under Jamison will be a team of aggression, controlled aggression.
“We want to play fast, be very physical, just want to just leave everything out there,” Jamison said. “That takes a lot of preparation and we will instill that into the mindset of the kids, starting right now.”
The new coach knows he will have a talented cog to work around this year in quarterback Thomas Heffner, who started as a freshman this fall. In eight games, Heffner threw for 560 yards and four touchdowns. Heffner also ran for 597 yards and six scores with three games running for more than 100 yards. He split time with senior Dominic Pupo in a two-quarterback system for the majority of the season.
Jamison knows Heffner is someone he can build an offense around immediately.
“He was one of the most dynamic kids I had to scout,” Jamison said about Heffner. “He was the most dynamic kid I had to scout as a quarterback. He’s pretty special.”
Jamisson said the coming year will be built around Heffner and talent already on campus.
“We’ve got a really good quarterback here so the system is going to be built around him,” Jamison said. “I don’t want to come with a preconceived notion of offense. We are going to adapt each year as a different team each year.”
Jamison played football at Delta State, where he played cornerback and outside linebacker for the Statesmen. He came to DeSoto Central in 2010 and coached with that program over 12 years, becoming defensive coordinator with head coach Will Wolfe for the Jaguars last season.
Moving to 6A, Jamison knows his team will need to be ready for stiff challenges in Region 1-6A.
“When you think about high school football in the state of Mississippi, there’s not many districts that are tougher than this one here,” he said about the district. “When I was growing up and even when I started coaching, it was always South Panola and Olive Branch. I want to get back to that rivalry where it really means something. I really want to get back to that.”
Fans in Olive Branch are hungry for that rivalry return and for more success on the gridiron. The Quistors, over their history, have won 11 district championships and won the 2011 state title with an undefeated team. But the program has not been in the playoffs since 2019 when it reached the second round under Tyler Turner.
Turner’s three seasons have been the best in recent memory for Olive Branch, going 33-8 overall and 5-3 in the playoffs. Darren Bowling coached the Quistors to a 5-5 record in his one season in 2020, and then Russell came to Olive Branch from Lafayette (Oxford) in 2021.
Now the program is Jamison’s, and he’s ready to take it over.
“It was going to take a lot to get me away from DeSoto Central and this was one of those jobs that did it,” Jamison said, looking to ‘Respect the Pride.’
