Panthers young and hungry

BY RAY VAN COR

The Greenville Standard

 

The Georgiana Panthers have been grinding it out in the sweltering August heat, getting prepared for the upcoming season.

This past Friday night, Harmon Field featured the mid county cats in an A-day scrimmage.

Both the offense and defense showed obvious improvements from last year and sophomore Jacobie Morgan returns as the starting quarterback and a little more seasoned for the Panthers.

Lineman DeMarion Gandy who was injured during the first game of last season returns as a senior and tells the coaches he’s ready to go after his surgery last year.

With only four seniors on the roster this season, the young Panthers still look hungry for a victory, but the forth coming lineup looks like a very tough row to hoe for Georgiana.

Head coach Berry Bess said this of his team, “I think we’ll be fine; we got a lot of experience from last year. A lot of young guys got thrown in the fire early last year and I believe the team as a whole is buying into what we’re doing.”

Bess in his second season at the helm suffered a winless season last year and will face the former 4A now the 3A W. S. Neal Eagles of Brewton under this Friday night lights to kick start their season.

The blue and gold Eagles of Brewton will come into Harmon Field with a last season’s record of 0 -10 and also have themselves a new head coach, but a well experienced one.

Head coach Hugh Fountain came out of retirement to take the reins of their program said this, “I do not labor under any delusions about our forth coming season and my team has had the same troubles every other small school football program suffers from. We’re trying to instill the proper work ethic in our players.”

Head football coach at Charles Henderson High School for 16 years and in 2012, Fountain returned to Escambia County to serve as head football coach and Athletic Director at Escambia Academy, where his teams won two state championships and finished runner-up five other times.