After an unbeaten regular season and SEMO Conference championship, the Poplar Bluff Mules didn't have a single player recognized for a major award at the 72nd annual Poplar Bluff Letter Club Gridiron Banquet on Wednesday night.
The Mules, who won the conference title for the first time since 2006, picked up the team championship plaque while Jackson's senior quarterback took home the biggest individual award at the Black River Coliseum.
Cooper Callis was named the most outstanding football player in the SEMO Conference, picking up the Carr Trophy.
"There's a ton of good players in Southeast Missouri," Callis said. "Even to be nominated, to be up on stage with those guys, was incredible."
Callis threw for over 3,000 yards and 45 touchdowns for Jackson.
His fellow finalists included three running backs --a 2,100-yard rusher who scored 226 points, another who averaged 12.3 yards every time he touched the ball and a third that ran for 1,400 yards and was a finalist for the top defensive player.
Charleston senior Jeremy Tucker won the Derland Moore Award as the top defensive player in the conference.
"When they called my name, it was a big break," Tucker said. "My head went boom. Oh man."
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound linebacker had 143 tackles for the Bluejays, including 28 for a loss and five sacks. He forced three fumbles and recovered two with an interception.
A two-way all-conference selection at tight end, Tucker also scored 72 points, scoring on six of his 13 catches. Tucker had over 500 career tackles for a team that went winless his sophomore year to 6-5.
Tucker is the first player not in the SEMO North to take home the Moore Award, which started in 2011, and is the first Charleston player since Lamont Frazier won the 1989 Carr Trophy to be honored with a top individual award.
"We came a long way really," said Tucker, who will sign to play football at Southeast Missouri State University on Dec. 22.
"It taught me to never stop, keep fighting. My coaches told me to keep fighting."
As a sophomore, Callis was to get a shot at taking over for Carr Trophy winner Dante Vandeven, but an injury kept him on the sideline until the end of the season. Callis said, "it was kind of tough."
"I've always grown up wanting to play in The Pit and wanting to play Jackson football," Callis said.
As a junior, Callis was named all-conference quarterback throwing for 2,947 yards and 34 touchdowns to lead the Indians to the North title, but was not a Carr Trophy finalist.
"God has a reason for everything," Callis said of his sophomore season. "Whatever that reason was I think it helped out in the end."
This fall the 6-2, 195-pound quarterback threw for 3,065 yards in completing 67.5 percent of his passes. He threw for 45 touchdowns, ran for eight more, and had 1,263 passing yards in conference games alone. In seven games, Callis threw for five or more touchdowns and in his final game at The Pit he accounted for eight scores, seven through the air.
Jackson finished 8-3, losing 71-50 to Vianney, the defending state champions in the MSHSAA Class 5 District 1 final. To get there the Indians needed three overtimes to outlast Poplar Bluff 56-49 after falling short of the conference title with a 29-28 loss to the Mules.
"First and foremost I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to give me the ability to play the game I love," Callis said. "My teammates obviously, couldn't be anywhere without them helping me out so much this year, and my coaches as well."
Callis has five offers to play in college, including a pair of Ivy League schools. He became the eighth Jackson player to win the award, presented annually since 1979, and first since Vandeven in 2014. He is also the 15th of 38 winners from a team that did not win a conference title.
Finalists for the Carr Trophy included Malden's Tray Stevenson, Hayti's Ivory Winters and Cape Central's Aaron Harris.
Stevenson, a senior, won the Scoring Award for the East with 226 points, fourth most in the history of the conference, and ran for 2,163 yards, breaking the school record set by 2012 Carr winner Romello McCoy.
Winters, a junior, won the Scoring Award for the West and was a two-way all-conference selection who averaged 12.3 yards and scored 218 points with 30 touchdowns.
Harris ran for 1,457 yards and was the Scoring Award winner for the North with 116 points. He also was a finalist for the Moore Award with 85 total tackles, including 12 for a loss and a sack.
"Being up there on stage alone with those guys it was an incredible feeling," Callis said.
Kennett's Patrick Maddox won the South Scoring Award with 105 points. Junior teammate Treyvon Lemmons was a finalist for the Moore Award and was named the Outstanding Linemen for the South.
Jackson's Nathan Brown was also a finalist for the Moore Award with 155 total tackles.
Sikeston's Quincy Chinwuko was the Outstanding Lineman for the North while Jackson Wilson of Malden won the award for the East and Hayti's Louis Wright was the top linemen in the West.
Poplar Bluff won the team title in the North at 4-0 while Malden, Kennett and Hayti were 3-0 to win league titles.
Mules coach Mark Barousse was named the Coach of the Year in the North. Myanza McCain and Brett Barousse were named to the All-SEMO Conference team for both offense and defense while receiver Tyson Cox, offensive lineman Preston Burroughs, defensive lineman Kendrick Gordon, linebackers Tanner Dunivan and Makarius Bell joined them.
Kennett's Joel Wyatt, Malden's Kevin Collier and Hayti's Dominique Robinson were presented with Coach of the Year Awards from Southeast Missouri State University head coach Tom Matukewicz.
Charlie Vickery, who spent 42 years as a head coach and the last two as an assistant coach in the conference, was presented with the Sam Giambelluca Lifetime Achievement Award.
"It's an honor to be receiving this," Vickery said. "I don't know if any of you guys out there want to go into education but let me tell you, coaching and teaching professionally is a great job to have.
"I guess there's a lot of other jobs that the best thing you've got to look forward to is the weekends and vacations. You've got a lot of things to look forward to in the coaching profession. No. 1 is the next practice. You've got the next game and the next season. And you've got the next group of athletes to coach. There's something to look forward to all the time."