Picayune’s return to 5A South State

Picayune head football Coach Dodd Lee says he’d drive all the way to Arkansas just to play in this year’s state title game.

Thankfully for him, that 5A clash is less than an hour up the road in Hattiesburg, but the Maroon Tide still have to get through West Jones to claim its first South State championship since 2013.

Now that they’ve exacted a little revenge against Laurel, Picayune appears ready to do just that on the day after Thanksgiving.

Center Garrett Franklin said, “We never expect to lose. We always want to go as far as we can and so that’s always been the goal, and how it works out it works out. And here we are.”

Picayune’s road back to South State for the second time in three years includes last week’s second round victory over the team that stole that crown away from the Maroon Tide in 2016 and then dashed those hopes yet again in 2017. Head Football Coach Dodd Lee said, “It’s a culmination of all the hard work they’ve done since the end of last season when we lost to Laurel on the last, right at the end of the game. And we took up equipment that Monday and went to work that Tuesday and we’ve worked all summer. A lot of the kids have put in a lot of effort into what’s going on.”

With an overall record of 10-3 that effort has the Tide just one win away from its third championship game appearance in the last eight years, but avenging prior heartbreaks just to get there certainly isn’t the end-all be-all. “You can’t get focused on we beat Laurel. You can’t get focused on that. Like I told our quarterback, it’s not over. We’ve got goals of where we want to go and beating Laurel was one of them, but we can’t stop there. We’ve got to keep going.”

Picayune’s new South State adversary comes in the form of West Jones who just pulled off the unthinkable on Friday, dispatching previously undefeated Hattiesburg 37-14. Leading the charge for the 11-2 Mustangs is Alabama commit Byron Young, who’s been dominating opposing offensive lines to the tune of 16 and a half sacks. “No. 47, Alabama commit. We’re excited for the challenge.”

Left tackle Jay Mickle said, “Just got to get him going backwards. Just keep, every play, just harder and harder.”

The Mustangs excel by allowing less than nine points per game, the Tide counters with an offense that drops more than 43 per contest. At the end of the day, coaching matters too and Picayune’s head man has been delivering the same pep-talk to his program for more than two decades. “We tell our kids before we go out we feel like we can beat anybody anywhere, anytime if we don’t turn the ball over and have unforced penalties. If we don’t have those, we’ve got a good chance to win any game we play we feel like.”

Left tackle Deonta Reed said,”Perfection. Perfection has always been the message. We chase perfection. You have to be perfect to win. If you’re not perfect, you’re not winning.”

Friday’s game between Picayune and West Jones will kick off at 7 p.m. from the home of the Maroon Tide.