Jackets football team staying busy in as summer winds down
The Yellow Jackets football team has officially been in preseason training and will be hosting an inner-squad stadium scrimmage event before school starts back.
The team hopes to continue off their successful accomplishments and advancements into the state playoff games last season, and have been hard at work through spring and summer training.
Head Coach Biff Parson said the team switched to a four day practice routine in July and have been focused on improving their skills.
He added that he has seen outstanding attendance and leadership this summer, especially from the Seniors, but also from the middle school players who have been joining in on the high school practices three days per week.
“It’s important for them to be here with us and begin to understand the expectations and routines at their age,” Parson said.
He said that their expectations are to win the middle school championship
title this year, after several years of Cedartown taking the top spot among area teams competing in the Floyd County Athletic Association league.
Overall, Parson has a positive outlook for the season and feels the recent training sessions and upcoming scrimmages will play a big role in their successes this year.
“Being in my fourth year, we feel like our program is established, our kids have bought into what we have called ‘the standard’ for so long, and I think that’s why they’re showing up and working hard every day,” Parson said.
New this year, Parson and the football team will be hosting Midnight Madness, which will be a late-night, earlymorning inner-squad scrimmage event.
Since Thursday, August 1 is the first allowed day of high school sports practices according to GHSA rules, the team will be conducting a scrimmage with full equipment starting at midnight.
The players will take the high school stadium field at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 31 for practice on special teams and other aspects while wearing helmets. They will later dress in full gear and return to the field at 12:00 a.m. on August 1 for a game lasting until 1 or 1:30 a.m.
Parson stated that all Jacket fans and community members are invited to participate in the event and get a preview of the upcoming season games.
The purpose of Midnight Madness as well as the upcoming official scrimmage games against Bremen on August 9 and Temple on August 16 are to evaluate players and determine if they are in the right positions in order to make the team successful.
Both official scrimmage games will be hosted at home starting at 7:30 p.m. Rockmart’s first regular season game is on August 23 at Cedartown at 7:30 p.m.