T-minus four days and counting…… That is all the time that is left before the “unofficial” start to the LHSAA 2022 football season which will see Jonesboro-Hodge High School do battle against Class 4A Franklin Parish at the annual Bayou Jamb.

For the first time ever in the 16 year history of the season opening jamboree, the event that this year will feature 14 teams from north Louisiana will take place at Joe Aillet Stadium on the campus of Louisiana Tech University. The final pre-season tune-up will kick off at 1:00pm on Saturday, August 27th and is one of five games that are scheduled on the day.

JHHS head coach Terrance Blankenship expects Franklin Parish to give his team a good test despite the Class 4A opponent coming off a 1-7-1 season the year before, missing the playoffs and playing under a new head coach.

“You can throw their record from last year out the window,” reflected Blankenship. “They are going to come in very motivated and playing with the same purpose that fueled us last year.” 

What the Tiger head man is referring to is, like last year when the Tigers rallied around the death of teammates LaJavion Nichols and Javious Holden before the season, Franklin will be playing hard for their new head coach Adrian Burnette, whose father passed away just a few weeks ago. 

“We have our work cut out for us for sure, as I expect to get the best Franklin Parish has to offer,” said Blankenship. “It didn’t help that we didn’t get to practice as much as we would have liked due to the rain.” 

Still Blankenship is optimistic his Tigers will take another step forward in preparation of the “official” season opener scheduled for September 2nd on the road against General Trass in Lake Providence.

“While we didn’t get to practice much the guys got a lot of film time in and instruction from our coaches,” continued Blankenship. “I may be wrong, but I expect to see improvement this week as the guys seem to have grasped the areas they needed to do better in. We will see.!”

2022 Jonesboro-Hodge “Two Deep” lineup