Springtime means more than flowers and birds chirping for anyone near Greyhound Field in the pre-dawn hours. It’s also meant spring football practice for the Greyhounds, who began their second week of their springtime work this week ahead of next Tuesday afternoon’s purple and white scrimmage that’ll close out the spring ahead of a brief break, leading to summer workouts.
“We feel really good. I think were in the right spot in terms of how hard our players are working, with fundamentals and how we practice, how we do things,” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said. “Our players have done a really good job of handling the challenges.”
Part of that challenge? Practice starting at around 5:30 a.m., a time when many of their classmates are still sound asleep.
“Obviously, waking up early is not easy. We’re trying to build our group of guys that we’ll play the season with through adversity, and they’re handling it well,” Montgomery said. “They’re growing closer together and leaning on each other and becoming a team. That’s what you want to see, and I think we’re right on track.”
It’s a contrast to this time a year ago, when Jones County’s players and coaches were getting used to one another for the most part, and some JCHS coaches were not even fulltime at the school yet.
The page has turned this year, with a majority of the Greyhounds’ coaches building on players that they spent last year coaching, taking on a process of steadily building toward an Aug. 21 season opener against Valdosta.
“We have more coaches coaching position groups because we have all of our coaches here, now,” Montgomery said. “We can get more detailed.”
A key element of the spring? The coaching staff getting a good handle on all of the strengths and weaknesses of each player and how to best align them on offense, defense, and special teams.
“It’s definitely finding out the ‘who’. Right now, it’s really about finding the strengths and weaknesses of each kid and what each guy does well,” Montgomery said. “We’re doing some special teams circuits right now that allow us to find guys who can be big names for us on special teams. On offense and defense, were looking at our guys and seeing how they handle contact and find out what each guy does well.”
