Golden Hawks face another tough non-region schedule
Joel Ingram really has no one to blame but himself for the Washington County football team’s difficult non-region schedule.
But that has worked in the past, so the Golden Hawks aren’t about to change that plan.
Washington County opens its season against Jones County on Friday night, then hosts Burke County and hits the road for games with Baldwin and Evans before GHSA Region 3-2A play begins in September.
“We’ve got a good one, a nice warm-up game, huh?” Washington County’s head coach said Monday. “I wonder who’s the guy who keeps scheduling those games. But being true to our policy for non-region games, we’re going to play good people and help us get ready for those games later in the season.
“That’s a decision I made, and some people might think it’s wrong or reckless, but we’re going to play higher classification teams and just try to grind through.”
Ingram believes the Hawks will see the benefit of that later in the season, and that approach has worked in most of Ingram’s 10 seasons running the program. In nine of those seasons, Washington County reached the playoffs, and five times, the Golden Hawks have reached double digits in wins.
Washington County has moved to Class 2A with the latest reclassification cycle and is in the same region with Bleckley County, Dodge County, Dublin, East Laurens, Northeast and Southwest. The Hawks open region play against East Laurens on Sept. 30.
“It’s extremely tough, and it reinforces why we play these games on the front end,” Ingram said. “I like to think those games will help us later in the season and show us how we’ll handle adversity and how we’ll handle the ups and downs of games; at least that’s what I keep telling myself. When you play good teams, you can get exposed, and we want to use these games as a learning tool.
“We just want to play smart, play hard and play physical.”
That starts Friday night against the Greyhounds, who will be without starting quarterback Bradley Hunnicutt after he suffered a high ankle sprain in a loss last week to Lee County. Ingram said the Hawks are banged up, as well, as running back Darius Tucker was injured after rushing for 100 yards in the team’s scrimmage.
Ingram said Tucker hasn’t practiced, and if he doesn’t practice this week, he won’t play Friday.
“Those guys are going to score; I don’t care how good you think your defense is,” Ingram said of the Greyhounds. “I know their quarterback is hurt, but they have a good team, and we need to limit our three-and-outs to keep them off the field.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Golden Hawks face another tough non-region schedule."