Most football coaches will tell you that they are not fans of Homecoming. It’s a week of celebration at schools that ends with a game on Friday night with numerous distractions in between.
Grenada High School longtime head football coach Ashley Kuhn is one of those concerned leaders as his team prepares for this Friday’s Homecoming contest with Hernando.
The 12th-year coach has been outspoken concerning Homecoming and all the things that take place away from the school. Some of the activities are rolling yards with toilet paper to, on some occasions, vandalism to property. Kuhn addressed his team earlier this week concerning making good decisions and staying safe during Homecoming festivities.
“I think it is worse this year than in the past,” he said. “You see kids speeding down the road and, as a parent myself, you are concerned for their safety and well being. As far as our team, we have addressed them about their priorities, which include getting ready to play the game Friday night.”
Kuhn was pleased with the GHS administration and their stance concerning Homecoming activities.
“I’m happy with the way that the school has handled Homecoming,” he said. “They have been ahead of this making sure the students know of the consequences for their behavior. There is as much as 80 percent of the students having good, clean fun. What you worry about is the other 20 percent.”
One thing that Kuhn wishes would happen includes a curfew in place for Homecoming week.
“By having a curfew, it would be easier to keep potential problems at a minimum,” he said. “Safety is my biggest concern for everyone involved.”
The game will feature a battle of 2-0 teams at Charger Stadium. Hernando has a new coach as a former defensive coordinator Steve McCann takes over the program. McCann has been at the DeSoto County School for nine years. Prior to that, he was at Pearl High School.
There’s a lot of newness for the Tiger football program in 2022. Along with McCann, Hernando has a total of four new staff members. There were some changes McCann made and other things stayed the same.
“We didn’t make a lot of drastic changes to the system,” McCann said. “I wanted to keep it going and add my own personal touch to it. Right now, we are trying not to beat ourselves and play as hard as we can. We are still trying to find out what we can do well.”
After facing a team that threw the football 35 times last week, the Chargers face a Hernando team that has a decidedly different look on the offensive side of things.
“They are a run team first,” Kuhn said. “The keys for us defensively will take us to the football.”
Grenada’s attention will be on Hernando junior running back Brody Martin and trying to slow him down.
The Chargers defensive unit limited Pontotoc to 93 total yards in Grenada’s 49-10 win last week. Linebackers Tre Parker and Jalon Townes led the way.
Offensively, Grenada is looking for more consistency in its passing game. The Chargers are 9-of-30 through the air in two games.
“We have to do a better job of hitting open receivers,” Kuhn said. “The offense needs to be more balanced than we have been to this point.”
The Chargers’ running attack got a shot in the arm last week as sophomore McCaleb Taylor ran for a career-best 196 yards on 21 carries. He replaced senior Jhordan During, who went down with a leg injury last week and is questionable for Friday.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Homecoming festivities are set to begin at 6:30 p.m.
