By Heath Walley
There certainly will be a local clash and probably a pop of the pads or two in Ellisville this Thursday night. Two of the best football players to come out of Jasper County in the last decade will go head-to-head during the season opener between the Jones County Junior College Bobcats and the Coahoma Community College Tigers.
Bay Springs High School products Dashawn Crawford and Jaylin “Bowlegs” Jones know each other well. They played football together for years, won a 2A South State Championship together in 2016, and walked during high school graduation together.
Now, the tide has turned and the two local standouts will be gunning for one another Thursday evening – Crawford as an experienced Bobcat defensive lineman and Jones as the Tigers’ premier running back.
Both coaches have high regards of their players.
JCJC head coach Steve Buckley says that Crawford is an experienced and explosive player.
“Dashawn understands our defense number one. He’s been in our system over a year,” Buckley mentioned. “He’s our most explosive D-lineman, so we expect him to have a great year.”
Coahoma head coach Steven Miller defined Jones as his team’s workhorse.
“He (Jones) is our workhorse. It’s as simple as that,” said Miller. “He is about 50 percent of our offense. That’s passing, running, and blocking. He does what we ask of him, and he is a pleasure to coach. He was hard on our list during his recruiting. Our recruiting coordinator Charles Lee did a good job recruiting outside our district. As a matter of fact, Jaylin came from the Jones (Junior College) district, and I think that he’ll be playing with a chip on his shoulder (Thursday) because of that.”
Crawford and Jones, obviously friends, will have to set that aside for a few hours Thursday night as they battle. And, boy, what a battle it should be!
Kickoff between the Bobcats and Tigers is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field.
