The morning of Hattiesburg’s first game of the season, Deuce Vance woke up and quickly realized that it was the last time he would share the first game of the season with his dad, Tony.
For the senior quarterback, each week and each game was a reminder it would be the last time he would share moments with his dad and head coach Tony Vance on the football field. At that time, neither could have anticipated that the Tigers would go undefeated and play for a state championship.
“I woke up, and I said it’s our last first game together,” Deuce remembered. “I remember telling him that every game. We’ll never play the Brown Jug again. We’ll never play Oak Grove again. It was just counting it down week by week. It kind of hit me at South State. I was like, there is maybe one game left that I can play in Hattiesburg High uniform. I just had to give it my all and do it for my coaches and my family and help my dad win another game."
As the Tigers’ season went on and the team achieved more glorious football milestones, both Vances knew that the season was even more special and that each needed to value the idea of living in the moment.
“I learned to cherish every moment and live in the moment,” said Tony Vance, who just retired as Hattiesburg’s head football coach. “We played every game we could possibly play.
“I never wished for the last moment to come, but I knew it would eventually come. When it there was a sense of peace for me. I think even for him, it was a sense of peace knowing we had a great run.”
Both Vances made the most of their final season.
Tony Vance led Hattiesburg to a perfect regular season, won 13 games, a South State title, and helped the Tigers make a state championship appearance, leading to him being named the 2024 Pine Belt Sports Coach of the Year.
It’s the third time Tony Vance has won the honor after previously winning it in 2017 and 2022.
Deuce Vance also experienced his own glory as the Tigers’ quarterback passed for 2,606 yards, 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions and ran for 1,041 yards and 18 scores, which led to him being named the 2024 Pine Belt Sports Player of the Year.
He was also named Class 6A’s Mr. Football.
But their time together had no shortage of challenges, particularly the scrutiny of Deuce Vance being the son and starting quarterback of the head coach.
“People will never understand how much he went through,” Tony Vance said. “When I say that, I don’t say it for sympathy. The amount of people who doubted him, the amount of people who criticized him and I’m not just talking about kids. I’m talking about adults. He was abused all over social media. It’s just things a kid shouldn’t have to deal with, and he handled it the right way. I saw that maturity level and not responding to criticism and negative things. He used that as more motivation than anything else to not prove people wrong but to show that each and every week that, I’m going to be the best version of me.
It’s something Deuce understands, but the criticism on social media is something he never left define but rather used it to fuel him.
“I got used to it in my ninth-grade year,” Deuce Vance said. “I was always taught to have thick skin. I don’t let stuff like that get to me. I just put that on my back as motivation. It makes me better. I kind of like when I’m being doubted or criticized, it brings me an extra reason to go harder.”
Despite the critics, Tony was quick to credit Duece’s work ethic as playing a major part in the season’s success.
“I knew he had put the work in so I could trust him because he put the time in with watching film and studying his opponent,” Tony said. “That was always one of his greatest attributes is the mental part with how smart he was as a football player. I say that not because he is my son but because he actually did the work. Often times, he would come early on Sunday so he could sit in the coaches’ meeting and know what the gameplan was. I never had a quarterback want to do that before.
“There were times he wanted to go to the weight room, and I really didn’t want to go.”
The criticisms and extra hours of work culminated in what made the peak of Hattiesburg’s season slightly more special after the Tigers defeated Picayune to punch their ticket to the state championship game. Just after time expired, the father-son duo had an emotional moment together.
“It was a special moment,” Tony Vance said. “It was just understanding what we had accomplished. It was a surreal moment. We just beat a great football team as shorthanded as we were on the road. It was the realization that we get to play for the state championship.”
Although Hattiesburg didn’t get the result it had hoped for in the state championship, neither Tony nor Deuce look back on the game bitterly but are rather grateful to have had the season they experienced.
“Not many coaches get to do that,” Tony Vance said. “Knowing that I was able to (retired) do it my way and write my ending the way I wanted to write it, which was going out with my son. That’s pretty special.”
Only days after the state championship, Tony Vance told his son that he was planning to retire.
“He called me in the living room and told me,” Deuce said. “I’m not going to say I was shocked, but my heart dropped for a second. I really didn’t know. I knew the day was going to come, but I didn’t know when.
“I learn something every day from him. It can be taking a different drop at quarterback or just something about life. A lot of people’s dads are probably in the stands watching, and mine is coaching me. To win 13 games that’s just something you’ll never forget. I’m just thankful for all the moments and all the lessons.”
PREVIOUS PLAYER OF THE YEAR WINNERS:
2023: AJ Maddox, Oak Grove
2022: Keeghan Rodgers, FCAHS
2021: Nick Pipkins, Sacred Heart
2020: Marquis Crosby, PCS
2019: Rico Dorsey, PCS
2018: John Rhys Plumlee, Oak Grove
2017: Jarod Conner, Hattiesburg
2016: Isaiah Woullard, PCS
2015: Daylyn Burks, Lumberton
PREVIOUS COACH OF THE YEAR WINNERS:
2023: Drew Causey, Oak Grove
2022: Tony Vance, Hattiesburg
2021: Ed Smith, Sacred Heart
2020: Zach Jones, Lumberton
Drew Causey, Oak Grove
2019: Zach Jones, Lumberton
2018: Drew Causey, Oak Grove
2017: Tony Vance, Hattiesburg
2016: Joey Hawkins, PCS
2015: Zach Jones, Lumberton
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