The North Pike Jaguars will kick off the regular season on Friday by traveling to Purvis to take on the Tornadoes at 7 p.m.
It will be the first time in five years that the two teams will not be facing each other as district opponents, and North Pike head coach Chris Smith isn’t looking for the Tornadoes to change much.
“Coach (Perry) Wheat and his staff do a great job,” Smith said. “They’re going to be a well-coached football team. We don’t look for them to change anything, they’ll be running the same offense they’ve always ran, or at least we feel like they will. They’ll be very sound on offense and defense.”
North Pike participated in the Parklane jamboree last Friday, where they played two one quarter games and defeated Centreville Academy 13-6, but suffered a loss to Parklane Academy 14-6. Smith thought the team’s performance in the jamboree undoubtedly opened their eyes to work harder as the season starts.
“They definitely were a different bunch on Monday,” Smith said. “We had probably one of the best practices we’ve had in several years. Real fiery, real impressive, even with the weather delay from the rain. They were a whole lot more inspired I’d say.”
Purvis defeated Oak Grove, last year’s Class 6A South State champions, 18-9 in a two-quarter scrimmage last Friday. Purvis made a deep playoff run last season but lost to St. Stanislaus 48-14 in the South State Championship.
“We’re going to have to play a good football game to play with them, because they’re going to be well-coached,” Smith said. “We’re going to try to play good people. It makes us better and it makes the guys know that they have to be prepared to play. We’ve got a tough preseason schedule and we made it that way for a reason. It’ll make us better when we get into district. That’s why we kept them on the schedule. It’s a good place to play, and we enjoy playing Coach Wheat’s team. You want to play the best, because you’re only going to play up to your competition.”
The Jaguars’ plan this season is to try and move the ball up the field as quickly as possible. However, Smith said applying that strategy can always result in a quickly fatigued defense on the other end.
“It normally does,” Smith said. “But early in the year you have to worry about wearing yourself out too. We’ll play the up-tempo, and then we’ll probably be more controlled later in the year, just because of conditioning. Early in the year it can affect both teams.”
Smith said he is hoping to see an excited fan base make the trip to Purvis as well on Friday night.
“Last year we had a great crowd over there and they filled the stands up,” Smith said. “Our student section is going to be there and they do a great job. The band and everybody is going to be there, so we look for a big crowd. I always complement our crowd because they follow us and they support us. They’ll be there. Everybody’s excited about seeing some real football.”
