It’s been almost eight months since the East Jackson Eagles have been on the gridiron against an opponent under real game conditions.
The last time, the Eagles came up short against Lovett in the second round of state playoff action following the strongest season in East Jackson’s short history. That year saw the Eagles go 10-2 overall and finish as runner-up in region 8-AA to Jefferson.
The Eagles will charge out onto the field Friday night looking to write a new chapter in their school’s history books, as they will start the 2010 season off against the White County Warriors at home. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The match-up with the Warriors will be tough, but head coach Frank Caputo said he and his team have “got pretty much everything ready to go.”
“We’ve got to shore up a bunch of scout reports on White County, but they’re such a good football team that I think it’s going to be a big brawl,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a heck of a game.”
Caputo said the Warriors are traditionally a big team and that’s what he expects Friday night.
“I know they’ve got a big quarterback,” he said. “They’ve got a good-looking running back that’s already committed to Kentucky. They’ve got some kids. In year’s past, they’ve had some big linemen. I don’t know what they’ve got this time. We expect it to be a very, very good football game.”
The Warriors come into Friday night off of three straight winning seasons, having just missed the playoffs with a 7-3 record last year.
“They’re going to be a hungry bunch,” Caputo said. “Our kids just have to learn to play within themselves and play our brand of football. They have to realize it’s not going to happen in the first quarter. It’s going to be a four-quarter ballgame and whoever can hang on there at the end, I think, is going to win. We’re just watching film and talking to the kids about their mental preparations.”
While the Eagles hold the home field advantage, Caputo said it’s something he’s never been big on.
“Other places I’ve been, we always played well on the road and I think we’ve played pretty well on the road here,” he said. “But for the opener, I think it’s going to be a heck of a good crowd, and we need all the hollering and support we can get. I think in this case, I think it will be to our advantage Friday night.”
Caputo said there were several pleasant surprises in the recent scrimmage against Johnson that he’s looking forward to seeing Friday night.
“I want to see how well Cody (Gibbs, quarterback) is going to do in a game type situation,” he said. “We’ve got some kids being replaced in some key spots, and I’m interested to see how they’re going to do. I’m also interested in seeing how some of the older kids that have lettered in the past and have started in the past are going to handle this situation without the guys we had last year.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of
The Commerce News or
The Jackson Herald.
