The calendar showing late June means multiple things. Among them is the fact that another season of Greyhounds football is about a month and a half away.
It will be a season in which postseason contenders and fierce competitors Warner Robins will depart but last year’s GHSA Class AAAA runner-up Stockbridge joins Jones County’s region thanks to GHSA’s latest classification and region alignment. JCHS moves to the AAAA classification after previously being in AAAAA.
Here’s what to expect from the Greyhounds schedule, which will also offer the appetizer of an Aug. 10 scrimmage at Mary Persons.
A new region of nine teams means fewer non-region games for JCHS. Gone will be matchups against the likes of Northside and Peach County. Instead, it’s just one game outside the region. That will come Aug. 16 when the Greyhounds welcome Veterans to Greyhound Field. The Warhawks have been a bit of a stumbling block to JCHS in recent seasons. Veterans won 30-6 in 2020 and 43-42 in 2021.
From there, it will be all region games for Jones County, starting with two more home games to begin the season first against Woodland and then against Hampton. JCHS is 7-1 all-time against Woodland, who was in the Greyhounds region from 2016 to 2021 while Hampton was previously in Jones County’s region from 2016 to 2017. Jones County won both games by a combined score of 93-10.
Woodland is coming off an 0-10 season with Hampton being 4-6 last year, but the challenge on paper should increase for the Greyhounds’ first road game Sept. 6 when it faces an Ola team that has molded itself into a postseason regular as of late and two years ago came to Gray and upset Jones County.
Another home game, the fourth for JCHS in the season’s first five games, will come Sept. 13 against Union Grove leading into the first open date of the season on Sept. 20.
What could be the season’s most anticipated matchups comes after the open date when Jones County goes to Stockbridge on Sept. 27 in what could decide an early frontrunner for the region title. Jones County is 3-5 all-time against the Tigers but won 34-6 in 2020 and 42-9 in 2021. Stockbridge, however, has ascended to greater heights since, as shown by last year’s feat of playing for a state title.
A home game against two other teams from Henry County will come next, one of which will be a first-time JCHS opponent. The Greyhounds are 8-2 against their Oct. 4 opponent, McDonough, but the most recent matchup came in 2007.
Following that home game, JCHS a week later travels to Eagles Landing Christian. ELCA will be in AAAA just four years after playing in the A classification, a place in which they won the state title from 2015 to 2019. They have slipped off that perch since then, however, having not won more than seven games in a reason since 2021 and winning four games last year.
Following a second open date, JCHS will host Eagles Landing Oct. 25 and go to Locust Grove Nov. 1. The Greyhounds are a combined 18-0 against both of those teams.
