Central Holmes Christian School heads into its football season opener with a lot of question marks.
The Trojans are playing a week earlier than most teams as they will take on visiting Park Place at 7 p.m. Friday.The Trojans are coming off a 7-4 season in which they lost in the first round of the Class AA playoffs to Clinton Christian in a 26-24 heartbreaker.
But the Trojans return a host of starters and many consider them one of the favorites to win the district title this season. CHCS coach Jim Crowder said the Trojans have to get some people healthy before they consider such lofty expectations.
“We had a lot of people not go through full practice because of injury this past week,” Crowder said. “We are trying to get them better and hate for them to miss. You miss them when you don’t have massive numbers. It makes it hard to practice.”
Because of those injuries, Crowder had to cancel a planned scrimmage with Bayou Academy.
Crowder said he did find some positives in the limited numbers.
“We were trying to look at the positives,” Crowder said. “It allows you to move some people around and try them at different positions. Hopefully, it gives you some depth down the road. We hope to have those guys back as soon as possible. It’s just got to be the next many up and we don’t expect any drop off and go from there.”
The Trojans will take on Park Place this week, a team that went 4-7 last year and lost to Indianola in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs.
“Normally, you really like to get in two kind of game situations going into the first game but we aren’t going to be able to do that because we are playing early. We are still going to be prepared and have a good game plan. We will adjust practice and the coaches have done a great job with what we have. The kids have adjusted.”
