25 teams in 25 days: Poplarville Hornets

“Ready to hit somebody in a different colored jersey,” senior quarterback Sydney Blackmon said. “For sure!”

Poplarville high school football is coming off a 10-4 season that saw the Hornets year come to an end while competing for a south state championship. 11 year head coach Jay Beech knows that, while the year didn’t end with a ring on his players fingers, it was a positive year. He spoke on what makes Friday nights so special, no matter what year it is.

“You know you put all of your efforts, you resources, of a community in to that Friday night and then you get another community and go head-to-head to see who can do it better,” Beech said. “That is fun.”

Football season is right around the corner and all the players, student, and staff at Poplarville high school know that. What makes this community so special is that the support doesn’t just come from inside the school building – it’s throughout the entire town.

“It’s awesome,” Blackmon said. “You have a whole town behind your back ready to watch you play football, ready to watch you go to war, it is pretty awesome.”

“It’s definitely a really good feeling,” Ben Will said. “Knowing that you entire community, your entire town is behind you and cheering you on, you know, it just gives you a better feeling inside. Knowing that, you know, there are people that actually care about you and the game that you play.”

The first home game for the Hornets doesn’t come until the second week of the season on September 6th. When Poplarville has that game all the players know the fans will be in attendance. As for the two weeks prior, with this Friday’s jamboree game and their week one contest against Jefferson Davis County, coach Beech and his players are beyond ready to take the field.

“It’s definitely exciting, you know, especially when you do two-a-days for two weeks straight,” Will said. “You are just kind of grinding it out without really any reward but we are all just scratching and crawling to get to kickoff.”

“I am over the moon,” Blackmon said. “I am ready to get after it. We have put in work all summer long. All the preparation that you put into it, all of the weights that you lift, it’s just nice to finally get out here an play football again.”

“Very exciting,” coach Beech said. “If I didn’t still get excited I wouldn’t do this job. I don’t know of any other jobs where you lose sleep at night because of how excited you are over your work.”

Coach Beech and the Hornets will get their regular season started on August 30th when they take on the Jefferson Davis County Jaguars.