The Greene County Tigers head to Atlanta this Friday to take on the Business Engineering Science Tech (BEST) Eagles in their season opener.
The two teams have never played each other, and both programs come into the 2022 season with first-year head coaches.
Since 2011, Joshua Moore was the head coach of the Eagles, but now Bernard Goodrum takes over in hopes of giving BEST its first winning season since 2013.
Greene County is in a similar state, having to rebuild a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2018 when it won a region championship under Larry Milligan.
However, with Terrance Banks now at the helm for the Tigers, the energy and optimism surrounding the program are helping to get it back on track.
The Tigers held their own against last year’s Region 4-AA champion Putnam County War Eagles during the preseason scrimmage at Tiger Stadium last Friday. The two programs only played each other for a half due to inclement weather, but Greene County’s defense already looked to be in mid-season form.
The War Eagles were held without a first down for their first three possessions of the contest and only scored one touchdown after a short Branan Griffin pass turned into a long Jalon Kilgore run for the score.
The Tigers’ front seven showed its ability to not only get to the quarterback in passing situations but to stop the run as well, holding War Eagles’ running back Tamarion Peters in check with no explosive plays.
Offensively, Greene County’s backfield combination of sophomore quarterback Steve Miller and senior running back Malik West should prove to be dangerous.
During the scrimmage, West had over 70 yards on the ground, including a 48-yard scamper down to inside the War Eagles’ 5-yard line on fourth down. Miller showed he has a fast release, getting the ball out of his hands quickly on screen passes out to the sidelines. He’s also not afraid to tuck it and run, or make the intelligent play to throw it out of bounds when being rushed.
Ultimately, the trip up to the state’s capital should be a testament to all the hard work the Tigers have put in over the offseason, and an excited fan base will now get to see regular season action.