CHRISTOPHER — Mike Rude’s 51st season as a head football coach and 56th overall in coaching is at a place that holds great significance to the Hall of Famer.
Rude is taking on the challenge of turning around his alma mater, which now plays as Christopher/Zeigler-Royalton/Elverado.
Rude spent the past six seasons as co-head coach with another Hall of Famer, John Shadowens, just up the road at Sesser-Valier/Waltonville. Following last year’s 8-3 campaign, Rude resigned and originally planned to head to the St. Louis area to be closer to his family, but then the opportunity to coach the Bearcats was put on the table, and that changed everything.
Rude took the opportunity, the opportunity to turn around a program that has struggled for a long time.
The Bearcats last winning season came in 2002. Their last playoff appearance was 2008, and since that time, the ‘Cats have only 29 wins in 141 games. They’re currently in the midst of a 20-game losing streak and are 2-25 in the past three seasons.
Rude says he’s familiar with tough jobs, whether it was taking over Anna-Jonesboro in the late 1970s or starting a program from scratch at Vienna/Goreville. He says he’s got great kids, and while he thinks his Bearcats could surprise some people, Rude says the first step is to regain respect from other teams around the conference.
The addition of Elverado to the CZR co-op has strengthened the numbers of an already impressive turnout. Rude says the team had 58 players at the first day of practice, a number that had exceeded his hopes and one that was more than twice the count from the end of last year.
The Bearcats will open their season at home August 29th against Eldorado.
