Stay the Course: For Several Bearcats, It’s Finally Their Time to Shine

Dexter’s success has created competition for Friday-night opportunities  - and Coach Chad Jamerson believes patience and preparation are about to pay off

Sometimes the hardest part of playing for a successful football program is waiting. You can work. You can practice. You can improve. You can be good enough to play on Friday night. And still have an All-State player standing in front of you.

For several members of the 2026 Dexter Bearcats, that wait is finally over.

As Dexter prepares for another season under head coach Chad Jamerson, much of the attention naturally falls on the players who return with impressive résumés. The Bearcats bring back All-State performers Kayden Hart and Walker Jarrell along with two-time All-Conference safety Jaxon Miller. 

But Jamerson believes another group may tell just as much about what the Dexter program has become.

They’re the players who stayed. The ones who kept working while someone else got the Friday-night snaps.

And now, as Jamerson put it, it’s their time to shine.”

Learning to Wait

Dexter graduated nine seniors from last year’s team, but Jamerson described all nine as impact players.

That creates an interesting challenge.

Replacing a large senior class is one thing. Replacing a smaller class filled with players who rarely left the field can be just as difficult.

Jamerson said player development has become an important part of building the program. The coaching staff informally evaluates where players begin — whether they’re an “A,” “B,” “C” or “D” player — and then works to move them forward throughout their high school careers.

The goal isn’t necessarily to arrive as a star.

“It’s to leave as a much better football player than when you arrived” says Jamerson  

Jamerson can point to two members of last year’s senior class as examples.

Logan Reed spent much of his career at wide receiver before approaching the coaching staff late in his junior season with a simple question: What do I need to do to get on the field?

The answer involved changing positions. Reed accepted it.

A year later, he finished his senior season as an All-Conference player. 

Then there was Jacob Huey.

Huey spent his time waiting behind Zach Billingsley at center. He continued working, eventually got his opportunity and finished his senior year as the starting center and an All-Conference selection on one of the most successful teams in Dexter history. 

Those are the examples Jamerson hopes the next group has been watching.

Now It’s Their Turn

One of those players is Jaxon Akridge.

Jamerson believes Akridge could have been a starter — and perhaps an All-Conference player — at plenty of other schools.

At Dexter, he happened to be playing behind Houston Neely, one of the best defensive backs Jamerson has coached during his 22-year career.

So Akridge waited. And worked.

“Now it’s his time to shine,” Jamerson said. 

That sentence may describe several Bearcats entering 2026.

Jamerson also pointed to players such as Jaxon Miller and Justice Lovelady, who spent offensive snaps behind Devin Turnbo over the past two seasons. Turnbo is now playing at the college level.

There wasn’t much shame in that.

As Jamerson joked, about 99.9 percent of players would have found themselves behind Turnbo on the depth chart, too.

But Turnbo has graduated and is now taken his talent to the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 

The opportunity belongs to somebody else now. 

And that’s exactly how Jamerson wants the program to work.

“Stay the course, continue to work hard, and when it’s their time to shine, it’s their time to step up and shine.” 

Friday Night Is Different

There is, of course, one part nobody can simulate.

Friday night.

Practice reps matter. Summer camps matter. Weight-room work matters.

But Jamerson said nothing completely prepares a player for the difference in intensity when the lights come on, the crowd fills the stadium and the guy across the line is wearing another school’s colors.

“The lights are different. The crowd is different. The intensity and the energy is different,” Jamerson said. 

Some players immediately rise to that moment. Others need to be coached through it.

Dexter is about to find out which of its new faces are ready.

That’s one reason Friday’s jamboree at East Prairie carries some importance beyond simply getting preseason snaps. Dexter will face Kelly, Portageville and East Prairie while the coaching staff continues sorting through several position battles. 

For some Bearcats, however, this season represents something bigger than winning a position battle.

They’ve already done the waiting.

They’ve practiced behind some of the best players Dexter has produced during one of the strongest stretches in program history.

They stayed the course.

Now it’s their turn to shine. Fire-Up Bearcats!!  You have an amazing season waiting for you!! It's your time to SHINE!!!