St. Xavier football looks to bounce back after 'down month' to end last season

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Head Coach Kevin Wallace didn't feel like last year's 7-5 record was a down year for his St. Xavier High School football team. But he definitely didn't like the way it ended.

"Down month," Wallace said this week. "I thought we played as well as anybody in the state until about mid-October and then we didn't play with a lot of physicality. We didn't play with a great deal of energy or enthusiasm. We turned the ball over a lot and we didn't turn the opponent over. I feel like we underachieved."

And when you underachieve, changes have to be made.

"You examine everything you do, not just on the field but off the field — the culture you bring in the locker room, how you go about your weight program (and) how you go about your conditioning program," Wallace said. "I think that once you fail, it's time to press pause and reexamine."

Wallace is counting on big senior seasons from a pair of multi-purpose University of Louisville commits: Karston Busch and Marlon Harbin.

"I think he and Karston both are going to be really good players at U of L," Wallace said. "I'm hoping they are dynamic and dominant for us this year, because, with their physical talent, they should be."

This is Wallace's 40th year as a head coach, his eighth at St. Xavier and it will be his last. He wasn't looking to make his retirement public knowledge, but it is. He said he wants to make it all about the kids, but the kids want to make it at least in part about him.

"It's always in the bottom of our heart that it's his last year," Harbin said. "I really want to go out with a bang. I feel like everyone has that feeling, that we need to do it for Coach Wallace's last year."

"Win one for Coach Wallace," senior linebacker Ben Pinkston said. "Last time he'll be coaching here this year and our last year as seniors, so it means that much more knowing that it's our coach's "senior year" with us."

The Tigers open at home Aug. 2 against Owensboro.

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