It doesn’t get much better than a MHSAA 6A football title for first-year West Jones coach

OXFORD — Coaches always dream of bringing immediate success in their first year on the job.

Making the playoffs and improving upon the previous regime are always part of it. Perhaps making a deep playoff run is, too.

Heck, why not throw a state championship in there? Sure, it might be lofty, but there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, right?

First-year West Jones coach Cory Reynolds did. Not once, not 1,000 times, but “a million times.”

And now he and West Jones have done it. The Mustangs completed their 14-0 season with an MHSAA Class 6A championship. It doesn’t get much better than that.

“You dream about this as coaches,” Reynolds said Friday night after West Jones defeated Grenada 23-3 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. “You dream through each game every week 1,000 times, or I know I do. Boy, I dreamed this dream a million times and it’s awesome.”

Reynolds takes over after successful run by Scott Pierson

West Jones linebacker Rase Jones admits now that he wasn’t oozing with confidence when Reynolds was first hired.

“We didn’t really know what to expect at first because we had heard so many names,” Jones said. “He came in and shortly after, we all started liking him more and more and more.”

Reynolds previously was Oak Grove’s offensive coordinator. He supplanted Scott Pierson, who across 21 seasons went 195-65. It was a dominant run for Pierson, who had just two seasons below .500. But there also was only one state championship to show for it.

West Jones is now 1-for-1 in state titles with Reynolds. It’s the second title for the program, the other coming in 2020.

“This is a special place to be,” he said. “I can’t say enough about it. It’s just awesome. It’s awesome and I am very blessed to be here.”

PLAYOFF SCORES: Mississippi high school football playoff scores: MHSAA championship results

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Author : Hattiesburg American

Publish date : 2023-12-02 07:29:23

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