25 Teams in 25 Days: East Central Hornets
Stop number seven on News 25’s 25 Teams in 25 Days, and go figure, a team with 25 seniors. After running the table in Region 8 Class 4A for the past two years, East Central is now looking to turn the tables on its new neighbors, heading into this season.
So, for the second day in a row, from Poplarville to Hurley, let’s see what is buzzing about the Hornets as they wrap up their summer workouts with a little friendly competition known as the ‘Baddest Hornet.’
Running back Teshun McGee said, “Baddest Hornet. I mean it was fun, it was good. But the season, we’re going to have a great year at East Central. 2019 team going to have a great year.”
At East Central, being the baddest Hornet means earning a forever spot on the wall. Otherwise, it’s all love. “We give them a hug and tell them great job.”
Even in the midst of a week that rewards personal achievement, the East Central football program is less about maxing out in the weight room and more about maxing out potential on the field. Linebacker Trace Higginbotham said, “No doubt. That’s the goal, man. We just want to get back to that state championship and just finish like Coach says every year. That’s the goal.”
Just one year removed from its first ever state title game appearance in 2017, the Hornets are now faced with a new challenge in 2019: closing out their first off-season as a 5A school and patrolling the ranks of region 4. “Again, at the end of the day you can say we’re 5A, 4A, 6A, 18A, the goal is to get to the state championship and finish.”
Head Coach Seth Smith said, “If you’re not striving to be the best why are you working? Obviously, we haven’t even played a game. But every year we set a goal to try to finish at the top. We’ve come close a couple times, we don’t see why we would change any goal or any expectation because we’re moving up a classification. Football is football. Now again, the district we’re in is going to be great. But we’re excited about the opportunity to compete in this district.”
Even though the Hornets haven’t played a team from Class 5A since 2016, they’ve shown dominance against similar competition with a 4-0 record against 6A schools over the past two seasons. All just a part of their 25-2 overall record during that stretch. Quarterback Will Young said, “One word to describe it for me was magical. It was just great, it was amazing. But the two big things you get from it, we did a lot of great things. But the two losses, we kind of keep that in the back of our mind.”
“My sophomore year I was blessed enough to play in that state championship game, and I have the medal that we got for second place in my locker. And a lot of us do, so every day we look at that to push us every single day.”
East Central was just two wins away from exorcising that demon last year, but a South State Championship loss to Poplarville, in what was dubbed the ‘Hornet Bowl’, derailed an otherwise perfect season.
That’s why the Hornets already have the end in mind heading into 2019, as they look to bring their first ever gold-ball back to the hive. Linebacker Zach Jones said, “Going out with a state championship, the first class to ever do it would be a dream come true. Honestly.”
“We want to be the first group to win a state championship. And that’d be awesome, your last game, being a state championship win instead of tears of sadness, your last high school game would be tears of joy. So I think that’s what we’re all striving for.”
The Hornets will crown the ‘baddest Hornet’ on Friday before kicking off their season against Harrison Central on August 23rd in the first game of the Port City Bowl.
The other new team joining Region 4 Class 5A is Pascagoula with Stone dropping down to 4A and West Harrison moving up to 6A.
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