2015 High School Football Tour – Stop #38: Choctaw County

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ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI) — Ja’Marcus Bradley was out of this world in the 2014 season.

The former Choctaw County Charger put up over 2,000 yards rushing last season to go along with 47 touchdowns. Those are big numbers head coach Adam Dillinger will have to replace in 2015.

But the coach has a plan, and he’ll turn to another athlete in Woody Vowell to take over behind center.

“We feel like we will be strong at quarterback even though it’s a different guy,” Dillinger said. “We graduated a guy that’s playing ball in Louisiana and he did a lot for us and was productive. Woody will come in and do a good job with a different skill set than Ja’Marcus. We feel like over the next two years he (Woody) will blossom and become a good high school quarterback as well.”

A stout senior class of 17 Chargers graduated in 2014, which helped lead Choctaw County to its first division title since moving to 3A South.

The Chargers will be young this season but they are confident they will continue their success.

“We lost a lot of seniors in a lot of spots that need to be filled,” senior Steven Thompson said. “It will be tough to be where we were last year but we will work hard and we’ll be very strong.”

“We all have good hearts and are positive,” senior Matt Lawson said. “We hope we can pull through. We’re young but we can go pretty far if we all stay together as a team.”

With the MHSAA realignment, Choctaw County remained in 3A South and their division gets no easier this season.

Kemper County joins Region 5-3A for this season and coach Dillinger hopes his team will grow and mature against the area non-division teams before region play rolls around.

“We want some of these young guys to have six good games under their belt and be experienced,” Dillinger said. “We have the heart of the schedule and the toughest part early. We go from Kemper County to Forest to Philadelphia in three straight weeks. Very tough to start out region play so we want the first six games to prepare us and get us ready for the battles when region starts.”

Choctaw County will start the season on the road at Pelahatchie before hosting Winona and then visiting East Webster the following week.