Jones County gears up for physical home opener against Veterans

The Jones County Greyhounds are looking to build off the success of last season as they prepare for their home opener against the Veterans Warhawks.

GRAY, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Jones County Greyhounds football team is preparing for their week one home matchup with the Veterans Warhawks.

Head Coach Mike Chastain is entering his sixth season as the Greyhounds head coach. The team has come up short of expectations the last few seasons, but improved from 2022, and has been looking for the type of success they had 2019-2021, where they won three straight region championships, and in 2019, when Chastain went 12-2 in his first season with the Greyhounds and came up one round short of the state championship game. Chastain is looking to return to the title game for the first time since 2017 and 2018, when he got there as the head coach at Warner Robins.

“Our mindset is start the year off 1-0,” Chastain said at Tuesday morning’s practice. “We’ve played Veterans over the last few years and had some ups and downs with them. We know they are a good club, so our guys are ready to go, and [I] cant wait to see what Friday brings. Last year, we lost a big senior group. Our expectations are being able to play some guys both ways this year, and all summer, and all spring, they’ve answered the call. We’ve really developed some depth across the board and I’m excited about this senior class. This senior class is really fighting hard for each other and I cant say enough about those guys.”

The theme for this year’s team seems to be physicality, something Chastain thinks the team lacked last season.

“We really feel like last year, we weren’t ready to play physically, and mentally I think we were pretty good last year in game one,” Chastain said. “This year, we’re focused big time on being physical.”

Now, with a highly talented dual threat Senior Quarterback in Devin Edmonds coming off a great season last year, not to mention a solid coverage team on defense, Jones County looks to make a name for itself in the passing game and also in pass coverage.

The senior leader at the helm knows if they play their game on Friday, they can come out with the victory.

“Just really stay consistent on the offense,” Edmonds said at Tuesday’s practice. “O-line is doing good; this is a new O-line, so they are doing good. They did good in the Mary Persons game in the scrimmage. Just stay consistent on offense, stay consistent on defense. Play hard, and be physical.”

The Greyhounds and the Warhawks face off at Greyhound Field Friday night at 7:30. Catch the highlights from this game and more on The End Zone during 41NBC News at 11.