“White is supposed to be loaded,” said coach Frank Caputo. “They’re supposed to be a very good team with a good quarterback, good running backs, good linebackers and good receivers. I’m hearing that they are a really good team. We’re going to have to be prepared for those guys.
“I think it’s going to be a very formidable challenge for our opener.”
East Jackson will follow that with a trip to Oconee County to face another Warriors team on Sept. 3.
“Oconee is right here in the area, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to develop a friendly rivalry with them and hopefully be able to play them for a long time,” Caputo said. “I think they’ll have a really good football team.”
East Jackson will then face Banks County in a region crossover Sept. 10 at Homer. The Eagles then begin region play on Sept. 17 in an attention-grabbing game at East Jackson.
“I would think it will be a pretty big game for both schools, the community and the school system,” Caputo said. “I think it will be a big football game for several reasons. For one it will be a region game, second, it will be a rivalry, and third, we basically broke off from them.”
From there, the Eagles will travel to Oglethorpe County (Sept. 24), host Hart County — another new team for East (Oct. 1), host North Oconee (Oct. 15), travel to Elbert County (Oct. 22) and play at Jefferson (Oct. 29).
“Hart County, traditionally, is always very, very good,” Caputo said. “It’s going to be interesting to see what style of football they play, and how big they are, how fast they are, all that stuff. They’re supposedly one of the best teams in AAA in the state year in and year out, so we’ll have our hands full.”
“With Elbert county, we’ve had a chance to play them in the lower levels and that’s been really good,” Caputo said. “We know that they’ve got a tremendous amount of athletes. They’ve got good support, and they have a new coach who I’m familiar with as a friend, so that will be interesting.”
But if this season is like 2009, it will climax with the Jefferson game. Last year that game determined the region championship, with the Dragons narrowly winning.
The regular season wraps up on Nov. 5 with the region play-in game.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News or The Jackson Herald.
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