Segment by segment, Greyhounds are building toward August.
The latest rung was climbed last week with spring practice concluding, first with Tuesday’s J-Day Scrimmage followed by one more practice to wrap up Jones County’s spring.
This year’s edition of the intrasquad game was split down the middle. Not only were coaches drafted on both sides, but respective staffs took their turn at crafting rosters, selecting players for each side.
The result? Four quarters of football showcasing the Greyhounds’ growth on offense and defense during the offseason.
Both sides of the ball put up their share of big plays as the Purple team had the go-ahead score early in fourth quarter to win 21-14.
“We feel good. We do need to continue to work on our depth and cross-training guys to sustain a long season. That’s one of our big focuses, to make sure we get all we can out of our skill set,” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said. “But we do feel good. We feel like the guys are bought into how we are going to do things and the vision of our program as we get into the sharpening phase of the summer.”
One element of maximizing the roster on hand was shown Tuesday through the intensity of competition. While the winning team received barbecue, the losers were saddled with hot dogs.
“We’ve had a different assessment after every two practices, so each assessment kind of talked about a theme that we want to focus on,” Montgomery said. “After our eighth practice, it was about live football. The spring game was a good assessment, but it was also about being competitive and trying to win.
“The first eight practices, you try to see who can do what. Now, we’re going into what we call the wilderness, we’re working to build our pack so that we can focus on fundamentals and details to allow us to have our edge once we get to the fall.”
An obvious facet to watch for the Greyhounds is at quarterback, where JCHS will be breaking in a new starter. Jonathan Hurley and Ethan Jones commanded the lion’s share of the snaps in the quarterback group that also includes Cam Gilbert and Lucas Terry.
The Greyhounds signal callers took advantage of steady running back play led by Travis Miller, Kaden Canty, and Laquan Pendleton as well as plays in space where standouts included Cayden Gilmore and Aden Blackshear as well as Wayne McCormick, who hauled in a 34-yard pass from Hurley in addition to another for 51 yards. Both Jones and Hurley engineered scoring drives in the first half prior to Gilmore hauling in a 59-yarder as the White team led 14-7.
“I’m really excited about those two guys. Both of them have skill sets and both are competing,” Montgomery said. “They are both leaders by nature. We’re really excited about what they’re doing for us.”
Not to be outdone, Chase Hasty showed off some ballhawking ability, snagging a pair
Tight end Aden Blackshear barrels toward the end zone for the first touchdown during Tuesday’s J-Day scrimmage.
BRAD HARRISON/Staff of interceptions. Hurley zipped a pair of quick completions to drive the purple team downfield in the third quarter to tie the score before the eventual go-ahead score.
For Montgomery, the excitement of seeing big offensive plays feels different than it did before being a head coach.
“The D-coordinator in my soul loves seeing them, but wearing a head coach’s hat, I kind of look at it from a different lens,” Montgomery said. “My family is learning how to be a head coach’s family. They’ve loved the defensive success, and now, I’ve told my wife, ’You have to step into loving the offense.’ and we have. She’s done a great job of getting fired up behind the offense.”
