HSFT Stop #54: Tishomingo County

Last season left the Tishomingo County Braves with plenty to learn. A 2-8 record wasn’t the result the team wanted, but that disappointment has become motivation for a young group that believes it has something to prove this season. With just seven seniors on the roster and a team heavy on juniors and sophomores, the Braves have brought plenty of energy into the new season — along with a simple message: prove it.

“It didn’t go how we wanted to go last year. So that’s definitely some motivation,” Tishomingo County quarterback Grayson Blakney said. “We have something to prove. Everybody’s just hungry, ready to work. We’re going to be ready to win. When we’re playing as one team, we can win anything.”

Unity will be especially important for a team with so many young players stepping into bigger roles. The Braves are leaning on a quarterback who can make plays in multiple ways, but the team’s “prove it” mentality goes beyond what happens on Friday nights.

For wide receiver Brady Keith, it’s about meeting the expectations the team sets every day.

“Just to accomplish the goals that we set for ourselves,” Keith said. “Not necessarily like a record mark, but we have expectations going into every week and every day. Just going in and putting in the work, leaving everything out on the field and just doing the best for ourselves and our coach.”

The Braves are also drawing on the lessons that came with last season’s highs and lows.

“I mean, we’ve had a lot of highs and we also had a lot of lows,” running back Dominic Alexander said. “You have to take it with you, the high and the low. But I just think it’s good to really remember the highs more than the lows. Remember that feeling, the adrenaline, the feeling of winning. You just can’t replace it.”

When outside voices start talking, Alexander says the Braves aren’t interested in proving themselves to anyone else.

“With everybody talking, you can’t really listen to them,” Alexander said. “You just prove yourself more than anybody else.”

That mindset has changed the way the Braves approach their work, according to head coach Cory Quinn. Instead of viewing practice as something they have to do, Quinn says his players have embraced the opportunity to get better.

“This group is more like, ‘We don’t have to work. We get to work,’” Quinn said. “They fall really in love with the details and the process and the meetings and the things that we have to do to be as good as we want to be.”

Quinn says last season taught the Braves some difficult lessons, particularly when things didn’t go their way.

“A lot of times, we didn’t play as well as we wanted to or we had a break go our way and we had a hard time recovering from that,” Quinn said. “This bunch is really taking that to heart and committed some of those lessons. And I think we’re seeing it every day in the way that we approach our business.”

For a team this young, that buy-in could become one of its biggest strengths. The Braves have the energy, chemistry and experience from last season — and Quinn says their confidence is already showing up on the field.

“What I love about them is they play really loose and really relaxed,” Quinn said. “They’re a really tight-knit bunch, but they play really loose and relaxed. They’re not worried out here on the field. They’re just kind of in a state where they’re executing the call and doing the things that we ask them to do.”

And when they do it right, Quinn says, the players celebrate together. That chemistry could prove critical as Tishomingo County looks to make a push toward the playoffs.

“It’s a playoff sport,” Quinn said. “If you lose a game or drop a game, you learn something from it. You go try to push for the playoffs. So hopefully it will serve us well. We get in the tournament this year and we can put a playoff win on the board for the Braves.”

Now, the opportunity to prove it is finally here. Tishomingo County opens its season August 27 against Alcorn Central.