After two seasons of being the sole outsiders in the region, Jones County is looking forward to finding itself in the middle.
With no appeals being filed from the proposed GHSA Region 2-AAAAA or others that would impact the region, the alignment for the next three seasons is official. Jones County will be part of a seven-team region, one with four schools from Henry County and two from Houston County in Perry and Warner Robins.
Dropping away from the region will be ELCA, Hampton, Stockbridge, McDonough, and Woodland, placing Jones County in a region with more balance and fewer opponents.
It’s an opportunity that excitement is already building around.
With nine region opponents this year and last, non-region contests have been limited, restricting both opportunities to seek competition and to welcome teams that could bring strong attendance.
That phase ends next year, and the fact that Warner Robins and Perry — two familiar opponents for Jones County athletics will be incoming — stands to only strengthen it.
“Honestly, I think it helps generate excitement with non-region games. We can get some more local teams,” Greyhounds head football coach Justin Montgomery said. “I also think that having Warner Robins and Perry, two middle Georgia teams, that’ll give us some good environments for our fans. It’s going to be good.”
The Greyhounds and Demons are hardly strangers.
In basketball the past two years, for example, JCHS took on Warner Robins in single non-region games. The girls’ basketball matchups the last two years have resulted in a pair of top-10 matchups.
“It’s always a big game when Jones County and Warner Robins play,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Takeo Gray said.
In softball, Jones County played Perry this past fall with volleyball taking on Warner Robins. Now, both will take on both teams with region records on the line.
“It’ll be really good for us. What really came out of this was what this does for other sports,” Jones County Schools Director of Athletics Charles David said. “All the other sports can get better scheduling. Some of our sports have not been able to get a lot of competition. That’ll really help strength of schedule, especially for softball and baseball.”
Of course, the entrance of Perry and Warner Robins on the football angle should bring a whole other level of intensity. JCHS last played Perry in 2022 and 2023, the latter of which was a state championship season for the Panthers. Jones County is plenty familiar with Warner Robins, either as a region foe or postseason opponent. The Greyhounds fell to the Demons in the postseason in 2020 and 2021 before a pair of losses in hotly contested region games in 2022 and 2023.
“It’ll help us with gates,” David said. “Warner Robins and Perry, they’ll bring people. Now, with more non-region games, you can look for people that can travel to us.”
Jones County could also see a different and more welcoming adjustment off the field, too. Instead of a region with nothing but Henry County teams, a more balanced group is expected to level things when it comes to all-region selections and other decision-making. One prime example has already taken hold, with an upcoming region football meeting being in Gray since it’s more centrally located among region teams.
“We’ll have more say. In the past we kind of had to go along with what everyone else was doing,” David said. “We’ll have a lot more leeway.”
