Jonesboro continues to see growth as they begin to prepare for 2024 season
The Jonesboro Cardinals football team will wrap up their spring season on Thursday when they face county rival, Lovejoy, for their spring game and for the past few weeks, head coach DeTimothy Floyd, he likes what he has seen from his players. “These couple of weeks with the guys, we’ve been really coming together a lot more. It’s been more effort, leadership is starting to take place and a lot of the intangible things we’re really getting control of,” Floyd said.
The Cardinals, who will begin summer workouts the first week of June, are coming off a season that saw them finish at 8-4 overall with a third place finish in the region standings and advancing to the second round of the Georgia High School Association Class 6A state championship tournament. A turnaround season for the Cardinals, who finished 3-7 the previous season, and Floyd credited the growth of his players as a key factor in the Cardinals success last season.
“I think the biggest difference was some of those young guys we had, they grew up quite a bit. Some of the seniors stepped up and took more of a leadership role and they were able to fight through a lot of adversity and I think that dated back to FCA Camp and it carried over to the season,” Floyd said as he reflected on the Cardinals finding themselves having to battle back in some of their matchups. “They just kept fighting and that was a mindset that they picked up over the summer,” Floyd added.
And while the 2023 campaign did not have the end results Floyd and the Cardinals had hoped for, Floyd said he players were still able to walk away last season knowing that they learned how to get over adversity. “It was a few times in the season where there was a lot of adverse situations that they came together and fought through and once we focus and get everybody on the same page, we can get some things taken care of,” Floyd said, crediting the class of 2024 players “putting it upon themselves to carry the team,”.
And as the Cardinals start preparing for the upcoming season, they will look to rising senior and defensive tackle/tight end, Jeremiah Ticket, to take his turn to step into the leadership role, which he is ready to embrace. “The offseason has helped me a lot as we’re getting better as a team, stepping up as a leader and trying to get all my young guys built up,” Ticket said as he emphasized wanting to see consistency from himself and his teammates. “Stay in the lab, school’s going to be coming up so make sure they’re doing the right thing, not getting in trouble,” Ticket added.
And with three of the past four seasons ending with the Cardinals having winning records and Jonesboro once again being a consistent name mentioned in postseason play, Floyd recognizes the impact that the success of the Cardinals has had on the local and Clayton County communities. “I think it’s a great thing,” Floyd said of the community coming together when teams from the area advance to the state championship tournament. “They come together and root for those teams and I think that’s huge for Clayton County and it adds an extra positive mindset or attitude towards Clayton County,” Floyd added.
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