Shelby County football focused on building culture, wins will come
New Shelby County High School football coach and athletic director Powell Miller doesn’t shy away from the fact that he’s taking over a team at the start of a rebuild.
The Rockets from 2024 didn’t win a game and didn’t put many points on the scoreboard in the process.
The team heading into 2025 looks a lot different from the squad a year ago, as Miller didn’t mind losing players who weren’t bought into what he was trying to build at his alma mater.
“Our biggest hurdle is making sure we have the right culture. That’s been a big stress for us this offseason and it started in December when we were doing lifting,” he said. “We saw a lot of guys who wanted to buy into that process. We had guys who no longer wanted to be with the program and they had to do what was right for them but we’re getting the right guys on the bus. That’s the number one key for us.”
That means there are some key pieces from last year’s squad who won’t be suiting up for the Rockets in 2025, but it does mean that the players who will be on the sidelines and the huddles for Shelby this year are the guys Miller believes he can lay a foundation for a program that can return the Rockets to former glory — glory that his coaching staff is all too familiar with.
“I’m fortunate enough to have a great coaching staff full of Rocket alumni and the two guys who aren’t either played against us and know what we’re about or they’ve been in this community for a long time,” Miller explained.
The 2025 Shelby County football team is young. The sophomore class is the biggest on the team and the senior group is the smallest, made even smaller by injuries to two seniors. And yet, that senior group is exactly what Miller needs to implement the culture he wants to on Rocket Lane.
“I think it’s important that we have the right seniors first and we start there. We have a small senior class, a small junior class but we have the right who guys who are building into this system and the we over me mentality,” he said. “Every single person here, myself included, is replaceable. This program will go on long after we are gone. No one person is bigger than the team and we have the right guys as senior leaders who are upholding what it means to be a Rocket.”
One of those seniors, Dontae Johnson, has been the leader on the offensive line so far in the preseason. Miller said that that group was his biggest question mark heading into the preseason, but with opening kickoff nearing, it’s the group he’s the most proud of, in part because of Johnson’s leadership.
“He had the best off season in our program. Just seeing that work ethic, his body change, buying into the culture, it’s been fun to see that. He’s the glue who’s held a lot of things together. He’s called guys out when he’s needed to and supported others when he’s needed to,” Miller said.
Miller jokes that, in this program, a sophomore is an upperclassman, but that sophomore class is a strong one with plenty of talent spread around.
Center Kaden Mattingly is the sophomore who embodies that upperclassmen spirit perhaps more than anybody as Miller says he “plays like a senior” but the field is littered with sophomores who will make a big impact for Shelby this season.
Both players expecting to get reps at quarterback, Xay Owens and Briley Staples, are sophomores. Tight end and defensive end Ian Aloo is a sophomore that Miller said hasn’t even approached his potential yet.
Miller said running back Erik Taylor is one of the most balanced runners he’s ever seen.
“He does a great job finding that hole, picking a lane and exploding through it. He’s not scared of contact; he’ll seek it out and it’s like sometimes, I need him to avoid it a little more,” he said about the sophomore. “The good thing about Erik and what we do offensively, he catches the ball really well and does a great job in pass protection.”
One senior who his actually new to the program, Tristan Barrow, embodies Miller’s other biggest coaching philosophy — multi-sport athletes.
Barrow played soccer, football and track at North Bullitt before coming to Shelby County. Miller said that the first time he saw Barrow run, he and head soccer coach Taylor Shaver looked at each other and knew they’d have to figure out how to make it work.
Guys like Ivan Pennix and Cam McCarty who ran track and played basketball, respectively, also show the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete.
“I’m the athletic director and you’ll never find a bigger multi-sport advocate than me. I don’t care if it’s during the same season — if that kid can help us, we have to figure that out as coaches and get out of the kid’s way and let them be the athlete they are,” Miller said. “Over 80% of our team plays multiple sports and they’ve benefited from that tremendously. When I was a college coach, I hardly recruited a receiver unless I saw them play basketball. We’ve got assistant coaches who coach lacrosse and we had 10 guys on the team this year play lacrosse. That’s huge. We have a bunch of guys who have bought into Shelby County High School athletics. We’re trying to build it to where we are one athletic department and we as coaches have to get out the way sometimes.”
Miller knows this year will have struggles and setbacks. He knows this is the first year of something bigger, but he also knows he’s got the pieces to make something special. With all that said, he’s not using the win-loss record to measure success this season.
“We can go 0-for this year and still be successful,” he said. “The mission and vision this year is we’re trying to utilize everybody’s individual talent and maximize their potential and give them a great high school experience they can’t get somewhere else. The byproduct of that is wins. We might win 15 games. We might win two games. But a successful season for us is doing things the right way, learning to be accountable, and finding our love for Shelby County High School football.”