Some of Dwight Jones’ fondest memories on the football field were playoff wins while he coached at Russell County High and Auburn High in Alabama and Northside High in Columbus.

In this, his first year as Jones County High football coach, Jones will need to recall the same emotions from those games just to win regular-season contests.

That is because in the new region 1-AAAA every game will be like a playoff game with the likes of five teams that reached the postseason last year on the ’Hounds’ eight-game region schedule.

That number does not include perennial powerhouses Upson-Lee and Westside-Macon that did not make the playoffs last season despite both having winning records.

Of the eight teams besides the ’Hounds in the new region, only Hardaway, with four wins, and Lee County, with two, did not win at least half of their regular season games.

Furthermore, coaches Robert Davis, of Westside, and Ed Pilcher, of Thomas County Central last year before moving to Bainbridge for the upcoming season, are two of the state’s most legendary active coaches, with a combined 552 wins.

“The league we’re going to play in is an awesome football league,” Jones said in his first interview as Jones County High head football coach in February.

“The thing about playing those people I learned a long time ago is, ‘The better competition you play, the better you are going to be.’ So we better get better every week.”

After non-region games against Mitchell County and Calhoun County, the Greyhounds will open their 1-AAAA slate of games with Harris County at home, Sept. 12.

As a AAA school last year, the Tigers made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, losing to Henry County, 28-24 in the first round.

The ’Hounds will travel to Macon the following week to play Westside, which has been a region rival for the past two seasons and has defeated Jones County by 32 and 34 points in those two years.

A long ride to Thomasville to face Thomas County Central then awaits, Sept. 26.

The Yellow Jackets reached the semi-finals of the AAAA playoffs last year, losing 10-7 to Ware County in the Georgia Dome before also losing their head coach to Bainbridge.

Bainbridge will travel to Gray the next week, Oct. 3.

The Bearcats won nine games, including two playoff games, last season after first-round exits in the postseason each of the previous four years.

They will likely show further improvement under new head coach Pilcher.

The Golden Hawks of Hardaway await former coach Jones and his team in Columbus, Oct. 10.

They have hovered right around the .500 mark in seven of the last eight seasons.

The ’Hounds welcome Americus-Sumter, Oct. 17, for their eighth-straight week of action to start the season.

The Panthers lost in the first round of last year’s AAAA playoffs, 27-12, to eventual runner-up Ware County.

They had won no more than three games in the previous three years.

After a bye week, Jones County will travel to Lee County, Oct. 31, where the Trojans have had more than three wins just once in the past eight seasons.

The Greyhounds’ final regular-season game will be Nov. 7 in Thomaston against Upson-Lee.

The Knights, who have also been a region foe of the ’Hounds for the past two years, have beaten them by three touchdowns in both of those contests.

The magic number for the Greyhounds is five. It will take five wins against these eight teams for a top-four finish in the region and a chance for Jones to make another of his postseason memories.