NATCHEZ — The 2011 Cathedral varsity football team has been dominant this season. The No. 1 ranked Green Wave is 8-0 and has only played one game decided by fewer than 24 points. But the varsity still has a long way to go to catch up to the run that the middle school team has put together.

The Cathedral middle school team, made up of seventh and eighth graders, finished its 2011 season with a 7-0 record.

The undefeated season marked the second time in as many years that the Cathedral middle schoolers have not lost a game. The team has won 20 out of its last 21 contests, head coach Ron Rushing said.

“We’ve got some good young kids coming up through the system,” he said. “If they keep improving and working we have big expectations for them.”

Rushing said one key to the success of the middle school team is simply the number of players they have on the team. This year the middle school team featured 24 eighth graders, which is more than twice as many seniors on the varsity team this season.

“Our strength has to be the numbers,” Rushing said. “I just think we have a lot of numbers in that age group with a lot of athletes that play all the different sports.”

Rushing said the number of players provides him a wide variety of athletes to choose from to fill out his depth chart.

“They are a good, balanced group,” he said. “We have good skill guys and decent size on the line. I think it’s a pretty balanced group.”

Rushing said two middle school games that stuck out for him this season were an 8-0 victory over a good St. Aloysius team and a win over Wesson, a 2A school.

Rushing and his entire coaching staff works with the middle school team, and he said that creates a system of continuity and familiarity for the players.

“We run the same defense and offensively we do a few different things but most of the terminology is the same,” he said. “We focus on fundamentals. It’s great our entire staff actually coaches everybody up through high school, so all the kids know all the coaches, and it’s really fun to watch those kids grow.”

Rushing said a combination of hard work and good athletes has created the success at the middle-school level, and he hopes Cathedral can continue that run.

“I think any successful high school team has to have a middle school program they can get excited about,” he said. “I just think over the last three years there has been a little pride down there. We talked (this season) about last year’s team going undefeated, and hopefully we are starting a little tradition.”

Rushing said he hopes to see all 24 eighth graders continue playing football at Cathedral throughout their high school career. He said 19 eighth graders would move up to varsity this year for the rest of the high school season.