Warriors prepping for upcoming season

The Choctaw Central Warriors are going back to work as they try to improve on last season’s 2-6 record.

The Warriors earned a place in the playoffs and battled Pontotoc before dropping a 38-24 season.

The COVID-19 pandemic kept things up in the air last season. Coach Pepper Posey said he and his assistant coaches have been mindful of the threat of COVID-19 and the different variants. At the same time, he said participation has been good.

“We had a pretty good summer,” Posey said. “We lifted weights for most of the summer and had good participation. Between junior and varsity, we have 60 out. That was one of the things when I was hired, we wanted to do, get the numbers up.

“We have some mini-camp workouts to see where we are. We are ready to get started.”

According to the Mississippi High School Activities Association, fall practices start Monday, Aug. 9. Teams will be allowed to play a jamboree/ scrimmage game on Aug. 20, and the season kicks off Aug. 27. The Warriors will play in the East Central jamboree. Choctaw Central started its season at Union.

Posey said the Warriors will return seven starters on offense from last year. However, the player losses were on the offensive line.

“We are going to be young on our offensive line,” Posey said. “We lost eight out of 11 starters on defense. We are going to see what some of our younger guys can do but we will have some guys going both ways.

“Our focus right now is finding the guys who are going to fill these open positions.”

The Warriors went to several camps over the summer, including Mississippi State.

Posey said making the playoffs last year was a plus.

“No one gave us a chance and we were leading at halftime,” Posey said. “We gave them a run for their money. It showed our kids they could compete.”

The Warriors compete in the tough Region 4-4A along with Louisville, West Lauderdale, Kosciusko, Northeast Lauderdale and Leake Central.