If you’re anxious for some football, the calendar is smiling upon you.
The state’s independent and private schools begin pigskin play this Friday night, while the regular-season kickoff for public schools is set for Friday, Aug. 26.
The West Tallahatchie High School Choctaws will warm up by participating in a jamboree Friday night at J.Z. George High School in North Carrollton. Coach Shane Hargett’s Choctaws will face the hometown J.Z. George Jaguars in a game that kicks off at 7:30 p.m.
The following week, Aug. 26, coach LaDon Taylor’s Charleston High School Tigers will travel to Webb to face in-county rival West Tally in the “Battle of the Golden Egg.” The winner claims a brass football trophy and, perhaps more importantly, countywide bragging rights.
That season-opening game, like all other Mississippi High School Activities Association varsity football games scheduled through the end of September, will get underway at 7:30. Games in October and beyond will start at 7.
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Tallahatchie County native and former Charleston High School head football coach Tony Vance was recently named vice president of the statewide Mississippi Association of Coaches.
Tony Vance
The MAC is a membership organization serving the needs of athletic coaches throughout the state. A variety of coaching specialties is represented, including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, cheer, archery, dance, swimming, bowling, track, cross country, powerlifting and tennis.
The organization, having offices in Clinton, conducts state all-star games and athletic clinics and sponsors coaching awards, scholarships and a coaches hall of fame, among activities.
This fall, Vance, who in 2011 guided the CHS Tigers to a football state championship, begins his 10th year as head coach of the Hattiesburg High School Tigers football program.
