The Central Holmes Trojans will kick off their regular season this Friday night, becoming one of the first teams in the nation to play football this fall.
The Trojans will travel to Pearl to take on Park Place Academy on Friday, one of four MAIS games that will kick off the season a week earlier than the rest of the MAIS schools.
On top of that, it is coach Mitch Womack’s first game as a head coach.
“I think a lot of schools will be paying attention to see if things we are doing are beneficial or not,” Womack said. “I have talked with a lot of coaches about game situations and how they are planning on handling them. We have a plan that we feel good about it. All eyes will be on us. I think one thing that people will really be paying attention to is the next week to see if there is a COVID-19 outbreak at either of the schools. We are going to pray that everybody can come out of next week healthy.”
Speaking of health, Central Holmes will be thin on Friday night as it is.
“We are only going to dress out 15 kids on Friday night,” Womack said. “We have five right now that have health issues. It’s enough to play with but it’s scary going out with those numbers. We just pray that nobody gets hurt. I think we will get some extended timeouts that will help us out. We have worked hard all summer conditioning these kids to get ready to play. We are just excited about the opportunity to play.”
Womack admits that the heat will be an issue on Friday night.
“I think the biggest thing about playing this early game is it is so hot,” Womack said. “We always talk about the heat but we keep on pushing games up. We ran them hard and lifted them hard. But we didn’t have them for three months and it’s just hard to make that time up.”
Womack said there would be a few major differences on Friday night than in years past.
“I think we have a solid hydration plan,” Womack said. “Everybody is staying away from the old-fashioned water bottles and going with bottled waters. We will have a coach with gloves on handing them out to players. I have talked with several coaches and they are all doing it the same way. The other thing is we won’t get there nearly as early. We will get there in time enough to get taped and dressed and get out on the field. And at halftime, we won’t go back in. We will stay out on the field and get in one of the end zones and spread out. I really don’t know what else we can do.”
As far as their opponent, the Trojans will have their hands full with Park Place, a team that beat them 41-17 last year.
“They are extremely athletic and return a lot of good football players,” Womack said. “Their numbers are down as well but not as bad as ours. They do some things on offense that can cause us problems and have good speed in their skill positions. We will have to play a near perfect game. I just want to see our effort and give ourselves an opportunity to get a win.”
