Jerry Fletcher’s journey to becoming the head football coach at East Marion High School has been a long and memorable ride. He’s played many different roles, from the underdog to the highly-touted favorite and the hometown hero, and he now hopes those experiences will help him guide the Eagles to new heights of success on the gridiron.
It all started in his hometown of Wiggins, where Fletcher took part in the family tradition of playing football at Stone County High School. As quarterback of the team, he helped lead the Tomcats to their first trip beyond the second round of the playoffs and their first South State title in 1991. To this day, Fletcher credits his high school head coach, Larry Easterling, as being one of the most influential leaders to help guide him through his career.
“I’d have run through a brick wall for that man,” Fletcher said of Easterling. “He was just the type of guy who was easy to follow. I never heard him cuss. He always treated his players with respect, and he met us on our level. That’s something I’ve always tried to emulate in my own coaching career.”
Fletcher went on to play college ball at Alcorn State, where he learned how to maintain the standard of excellence that is expected when you share a locker room with an all-time great like Mount Olive’s Steve McNair.
“We all knew about Steve before we even got to Alcorn,” Fletcher recalled. “My cousin, Marcus, Hinton, played with him in an All-Star game, and I remember him coming back from Mobile and telling me about him. We still talk about it to this day. He looked at me and said, ‘Cuz, he’s bad.’ I said, ‘Well I’m bad, too, cuz.’ Then his eyes got real big, and he said, ‘I’m telling you, this man is different. I’ve never seen anything like it.’"
Though Fletcher’s class won its first SWAC Championship in ‘92, he said it wasn’t until ‘94 that they realized just how special what they were experiencing really was.
“It was the summer before Steve’s senior year. We knew he was up for the Heisman, and we knew we were going to have seven televised games that season. That was when it really set in for most of us,” Fletcher recalled. “He and I used to stay in the same room on trips for away games, but that year the coaches started having to give Steve his own suite because there were always so many people trying to get to him. Of course, I didn’t mind that because that meant I got my own room, too.”
Through that time in his career, Fletcher said he learned key lessons about what separates the wheat from the chaff in the game of football.
“I think the biggest thing is that you’ve got to have a great attitude and great work ethic. There are a lot of guys who make it to that level with great talent, but if they have a poor attitude or poor work ethic, they get washed out,” Fletcher said. “Everyone saw how talented Steve was, but not everyone saw the work he put into his craft when the cameras weren’t rolling, or the kind of leader he was in the locker room.”
Those lessons helped propel him to success during his own stint as the starting quarterback as a redshirt senior, when he led the SWAC in passing yards and total offense.
He also carried them into his coaching career, as he started helping assemble elite offenses that carved out unique legacies of their own. His most successful group played at Laurel High School from 2013 to 2016, making two Class 5A State Championship appearances and winning one behind the skill and leadership of several players who have since reached the NFL.
“I knew some of those guys were good enough to go pro by the time they were in junior high,” Fletcher said. “They had the hunger for it, and they had all the talent in the world. For them, it was all about getting their mind right and fixing their eyes on that prize. I think that’s the biggest key with most high school athletes these days, and I always do my best to help guide them in that direction.”
Fletcher said after meeting his new team that he truly believes the East Marion Eagles have the potential to write a special chapter in the history of their own program if they’re willing to approach the game with the right mentality and work ethic. He doesn’t shy away from setting lofty goals for his players, and he’s eager to see if the Eagles will rise to the challenge as they work to bounce back from a 3-8 season in 2021.
“I see some great athletes out here, I really do. We’ve just got to put them in position to make plays,” Fletcher said. “I’m not really concerned with what they achieved or didn’t achieve in the past. My mentality is to come in, work our butts off and win football games. It all starts when you embrace the mindset of being willing to put in the work it takes to achieve those goals. If we can do that, the sky is the limit.”
