Rebels revel in big win

When Nick Brill took over at Johnson County Westside last summer, he inherited a program that has struggled with low numbers and even fewer wins.

Brill was an assistant coach at Russellville before getting a call from his former assistant principal who had taken over as the superintendent at Westside in May. Brill said he visited the small school located in Coal Hill and “it just felt right.”

“When we got here, the numbers were low, so we had to sell our program and get the kids to buy into the process,” Brill said. “Our philosophy was to show up every day and work hard. We’re not there yet, but we are making steps in the right direction.”

Brill said it was important for the new staff to make its own imprint on the program that has posted just one non-losing season since 2011 and was 3-6 last season. New helmets, new uniforms and even a new logo have given this team a new look.

Westside opened the season with a 50-0 loss to Cedarville, but Brill and his staff did not let that loss linger, something he said he learned from Billy Dawson when he coached under the current Fayetteville coach at Russellville.

“Coach Dawson always preached you have to show up the next day and work just as hard if you won the game or lost the game,” Brill said. “That just always stuck with me. So we came in and watched film and saw what we did wrong, then we worked to fix that. The kids did a good job of staying focused and we used that bye week to focus on Two Rivers.”

The Rebels were rewarded with a 48-6 win last Friday as Alex Xiong rushed for 194 yards and intercepted two passes.

The win was costly, however, as senior Kyler Stumbaugh suffered a broken arm and will be lost for several weeks.

“It was a fluke deal and happened with about two minutes left in the game,” Brill said. “We were trying to get him some reps at quarterback because he is our backup there. He got a bad snap and wasn’t able to hand the ball off, so he tried to run and got a helmet on his arm.”

Westside will travel to Lamar this week before opening 2A-4 Conference action the following week against Lavaca.