25 teams in 25 days: Ocean Springs Greyhounds
Ocean Springs, Miss. (WXXV) – “It’s a culture, you know what I’m saying? We have to do this. If you don’t do it you are doing something wrong.”
A big statement coming from a big time player that is part of a big time team. Ocean Springs finished last years regular season 9-1 and were a perfect 5-0 in regional play, finishing in first place. While the Greyhounds had success in the regular season, they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Losing 35-23 to the Meridian Wildcats. Senior Bryant Ausmer, junior Sharroid Whitehead, and head coach Jake Bramlett say that last season is behind them and they are focused on finishing this season stronger.
“The last couple of years we have only seen success in the regular season,” said Whitehead. “We want to keep that up but it’s nothing but learning experiences for this team and for this group of guys – it won’t happen again.”
“I’m really excited to get started. I feel like we have a good team,” said Ausmer. “We did well the past few seasons and I feel like we can keep that going as long as we keep working and just get over that hump that we have been at the past few seasons.”
“It was a successful year. A very successful regular season, obviously we didn’t end it the way we want to,” said head coach Jake Bramlett. “It’s a long season, we were very successful going through it, and that is what we are building off of is finishing the season on a strong note.”
The Greyhounds believe that leadership is a pillar to team success. Something they know they have form both upper and underclassman.
“Leadership all the way down is something that we preach about. It’s everyday around here,” said coach Bramlett. “Those guys that are coming up in each grade level, not just having senior leadership but having you junior, sophomore, freshman leaders – it’s a huge thing that these guys feed off as well.”
“When you only have one leader, I mean it’s a lot of responsibility on one person, but when you have other guys that you can depend on to work and know that they are going to do their job – you can trust them your teammates – it makes your job a lot easier,” said Ausmer.
The hunger for success is there, the leadership is there, now it is all about working towards their first game of the 2024 season.
“Oh man it is something that we looked forward to every day around here,” said coach Bramlett. “Talk about it every day. We are preparing for it now. We talk about what happened last year, moving forward how we are going to fix those things this year, and be prepared for August 30th. Having that mindset all the way through the summer carries us to that day.”
“It’s going to be a battle, I mean, two of the best teams going against each other in the state… we all want it,” said Whitehead. “We all think we are top players; they all think they are top players; we are just going to have to settle in on the field.”
