The final phases of the offseason have come and gone for the Greyhounds.
Now, it’s time of the closest thing to an actual game when Jones County hosts Jasper County on Friday in a preseason scrimmage.
For a team that’s eager to show its progress from the end of last season to the present, Jones County will have a formidable challenge to do it against on Friday.
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“They’re ready to hit someone in a different-colored jersey. They’re tired of hitting each other and ready to show how far they’ve come as a program,” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said.
The focal point on Friday for the purple and gold? Simplicity.
“We want to see our guys execute well,” Montgomery said. “We want to see them do simple well and play, good fundamental football.” The Hurricanes are coming off one of — if not the best — two-year runs in program history, going 8-4 and 10-2 the last two years in the A-D1 classification in addition to four postseason trips in a row.
“They’re right up the road. It ought to be a fun night and fun environment,” Montgomery said. “They’ll have their guys ready to go.”
Many players from those teams will line up across the line from Jones County on Friday, but the head coach will be different after Ashley Henderson’s offseason move to become the head coach at East Jackson. He’s replaced by Dondrial Pinkins, who comes to Monticello after previous stops at Mitchell County and Pelham as head coach.
The Greyhounds will enter Friday after spending some around-the-clock time with one another early last week. JCHS came together for a two-day camp last Monday and Tuesday, staying overnight in the school gymnasium, leaning into the opportunity to grow closer to one another.
“One thing we talk about is that you have to grow roots before you grow fruit, so we have to build the connection as a team,” Montgomery said. “The overnight camp was big in that for us. “We had a lot of adversity that was thrown at the kids, so them being able to go through that together is going to refine things more as we go into the season.”
And that camaraderie went beyond the players.
“Chemistry was built; there were memories made,” Montgomery said. “Not just the players, but coaches and the players, as well. Just sharing life together.”
