This is the most exciting time of year for high school football.
Every team is starting over fresh. Gone are the problems and hardships they struggled through last season. Each has high hopes of what it can accomplish this fall.
Teams from all across the state will kick off their seasons in just five days. Well, almost all will.
Two of our six Greenwood-area teams won’t be a part of the season-opening excitement on Friday.
Players at Amanda Elzy and Leflore County won’t be charging through the goal posts about 6:45 p.m. with the band thumping the school’s fight song. They won’t be amped up and so nervous they are almost sick to their stomachs.
The closest these players will be to the field might be in the stands watching another team play.
That’s what will make my 22nd season on the sidelines by far the strangest.
As part of the state’s takeover of the Leflore County School District for chronic academic failures, Elzy and Leflore are only allowed to play their division games. That’s the penalty for losing accreditation.
So Leflore doesn’t open its abbreviated season until Oct. 3, while Elzy will start Sept. 19 against league foe and crosstown rival Greenwood.
With the penalties, which also include no postseason play, Leflore loses its two biggest “money” games against cross-county rivals Greenwood and Elzy.
In Region 3-4A, Elzy’s not even the only team being punished for the loss of accreditation. Yazoo City is also limited to playing conference games and isn’t eligible for the postseason — leaving the league with only four teams eligible for the playoffs.
And since the top four teams from each region advance to the playoffs, Greenwood, Cleveland, Yazoo County and Gentry are all in the North 4A playoffs before the first touchdown is scored.
I told you it was going to be a weird season for us. It’s also been a strange and sometimes difficult offseason for Greenwood head coach Clinton Gatewood.
Rumors about his future began to swirl wildly in the spring when it was announced that GHS Principal Percy Powell would not have his contract renewed.
Gatewood tried to put the Bulldogs through spring training in early May, but there seemed to be a lot of distractions, with all of Gatewood’s players hearing the rumors, too. Gatewood tried to prepare the Bulldogs the best he could, even though he had yet to sign a coaching contract for 2014.
Basically, many figured he had one foot out the door as tensions seemed to grow between Gatewood, the central office administration and the school board. But Gatewood weathered the storm and is now in his fifth season on the sidelines for the Bulldogs.
But it’s not all bad news for area teams.
Both Pillow Academy and J.Z. George have new coaches and are excited about what they could mean for these programs going forward — Tripp McCarty at Pillow and Ben Burton at George.
McCarty is an absolute ball of energy who has pumped a ton of new life into the Mustang program, which had fallen on hard times since winning a state AAA Division II title in 2010.
He won a state championship at Brookhaven Academy in 2012 and will soon return Pillow to prominence in the academy AAA ranks. I’ve seen enough already out of him to know if PA doesn’t snap a three-year playoff drought in 2014, it won’t be his fault.
Burton is also creating good vibes in North Carrollton.
The Jaguars are excited about their new coach and their brand-new field house, which was unveiled Thursday. It consists of offices for the coaches, locker rooms, a weight room and storage areas.
It’s about as a good as you will see at the high school level in our area.
As you’ve probably seen, Football 2014, a complete prep and college football preview section, is included with today’s paper, so take some time out of your busy schedule and enjoy it.
Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
