PDHS Football Coach Steve Fergus hands torch to son Mackey; junior athletes gear up for upcoming season

PDHS FOOTBALL REPORT with George Le Gresley

If you visit the Montreal Canadiens dressing room, you will see the team’s motto: “To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high.”

Paris High’s Junior Football program may look just a bit different this season as founding Coach Steve Fergus is passing on the head coach torch to his son Mackey Steve is undoubtedly the flame on the torch, as he ignited the football program at PDHS after a 50 year hiatus.

With encouragement from the school administration and financial help from the Paris Optimist Club, football returned to Paris. His primary focus was simple: learn how to play the game of football! Winning was always the goal, but more realistically, they aimed to be competitive with a short bench and less experienced players.

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Steve Fergus, pictured above with his son Mackey. Steve resurrected football in Paris nearly 20 years ago and has been crucial in growing the program. He is passing the torch to his son Mackey, who will coach the Junior PDHS team this season.

Below, the PDHS Junior players were back on the field this past week gearing up for the start of the season mid September.

Photos by George Le Gresley

Coach Mackey was there from the beginning, as the Panther’s waterboy for all his grade school years, watching his dad coach this team until he became a student-athlete and a Paris Panther Next, he was off to Western University as a Business major, where he played Junior football for the London Beefeaters for two years. Last year, Mackey graduated from university to pursue a career as an educator and more importantly, to return to Paris to coach the Panthers and take that torch from his dad.

For Steve, passing the reins of the football team will be difficult, as he has always been the team’s leader. Nonetheless he is looking forward to his role as an assistant coach. Although he says this change will be difficult, he knows that the change was coming, and he is confident that