The Jones County Greyhounds are looking to build on last season’s success and are preparing for their first home game against the Veterans Warhawks.
GRAY, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Jones County Greyhounds football team prepares for their Week 1 home game against the Veterans Warhawks.
Head coach Mike Chastain is entering his sixth season as the Greyhounds’ head coach. The team has not lived up to expectations in recent seasons and is hoping to repeat the success of 2019, when Chastain went 12-1 in his first season with the Greyhounds and finished just one round short of the state championship game. Chastain is looking to return to the title game for the first time since 2017 and 2018 when he arrived there as head coach at Warner Robins.
“Our mindset is to start the year 1-0,” Chastain said at practice Tuesday morning. “We’ve played veterans the last few years and we’ve had some ups and downs with them. We know they’re a good club, so our guys are ready to go, and (I) can’t wait to see what Friday brings. Last year we lost a big senior group. We expect to be able to have some guys play both ways this year, and all summer and all spring they’ve answered the call. We’ve really developed some depth across the board, and I’m excited about this senior class. This senior class really fights hard for each other, and I can’t say enough about these guys.”
The motto for this year’s team seems to be physicality, something Chastain said the team lacked last season.
“We really feel like we weren’t physically ready to play last year, and I think mentally we were pretty good in the first game last year,” Chastain said. “This year we’re really focused on playing physical.”
With Devin Edmonds, a highly talented dual-threat senior quarterback who had a great season last year, and of course a solid coverage team on defense, Jones County now looks to make a name for itself in both the passing game and pass coverage.
The top-ranked player knows that if they play their game on Friday, they can emerge victorious.
“Just stay consistent on offense,” Edmonds said at Tuesday’s practice. “The O-line is doing well; this is a new O-line, so they’re doing well. They did well in the scrimmage against Mary Persons. Just stay consistent on offense, stay consistent on defense. Play hard and play physical.”
The Greyhounds and Warhawks face off Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Greyhound Field. Highlights of that game and more can be found here: The end zone while 41NBC News at 11.
