APPLETON — There’s a new general in town for the Appleton East football team as new head coach Jarrius James tries to turn a team that has won 5 games over the last 4 years into a winner.
“I know that people and the reporters they counting us last, or whatever that poll is, but we're not looking,” said James. “Every week we take it one game at a time, and we’re going to build and we're going to stack.”
If you watch a Patriots practice, on the field, James brings the juice.
“He brings all energy for us, we just gotta keep it going on the field,” said Patriots senior safety Birk Kozlowicz.
Hear from the Patriots and their new head coach about their excitement for 2025!
James takes over for Mark Krommenacker, who is now the head coach at Little Chute, and his main goal for his players is to just have fun.
“It’s really what matters because it’s our last year, it’s what we’re going to remember,” said Patriots senior wide receiver Josh Christiansen.
James, who played NCAA Division 1 FCS football at Incarnate Word and, most recently, was an assistant coach at UW-Oshkosh, says this offseason was about establishing a culture.
“That’s just of hard work, dedication, showing up every day,” he said. “Doing the little things when nobody else is around, and then you go out there on Friday and you let it all out.”
To instill that new culture, one of the changes James made when he came in was having the upperclassmen connect with the freshmen to show them what it means to be a Patriot on the field and in the classroom.
“I wish I had a mentor when I was a freshman,” said Kozlowicz. “Our freshman year was great, but if I would have been able to talk to those guys, it would have made it a whole lot better.”
The biggest thing the Patriots’ new head coach learned from coaches he played for and coached under was that you have to connect with your players and to be there for them when times get tough.
“My job as a leader now in this position to be there for one of these kids when they have a dark moment or if they feel like life is not treating them fair,” said James. “I gotta always remind them, I always tell all my players that it will get sunny again. It might be thundering, but it will be sunny again.”
And he wants his guys to know he believes in them. He said he told his team he wants to be on Sports Showdown for the final regular-season game, when hopefully they’re contending for an FVA title.
“I tell ’em every time in our time meetings, I believe in you. You gotta believe because that’s what it takes. You gotta see yourself. You gotta visualize yourself,” James said.
And the Patriots host Green Bay Southwest to open up their season on Thursday, August 21.
