Hurricanes Look To Move Up this Year

The Monticello High School football team qualified for the state playoffs last fall after finishing fourth in the region.

Second-year head coach Rydell Jackson has said throughout the offseason one of his top goals is to have the team “move up” in 2019. Jackson said the region will remain extremely competitive and knows it will take plenty of work both from coaches and players in order to accomplish that goal.

The Hurricanes were 4-3 in region play last season while going 5-6 overall. They earned region wins against Social Circle, Banks County, Oglethorpe County and Putnam County. The losses were to region champion Rabun County along with Union County and Elbert County.

The Rabun County Wildcats have won five consecutive region titles. While the Wildcats have a new head coach for 2019, many who follow high school football in Georgia believe there will not be much of a drop-off.

Jaybo Shaw takes the reigns of the Rabun County program after his father’s retirement. Lee Shaw returned to his alma mater after a successful stint at Flowery Branch High School and rebuilt the program into a state power in a short amount of time.

Rabun County reached the third round of the state playoffs in 2018 and played in the state championship game in 2017. The Wildcats return one of the top players in the region in quarterback Gunner Stockton who passed for 3,000 yards and rushed for another 700 this past season. The Rabun County signal caller passed for 34 touchdowns and ran for another 17.

Jaybo Shaw is a former quarterback at Georgia Tech before transferring to Georgia Southern. He also has college coaching experience at Georgia Southern, Army and Western Carolina. He had been the offensive coordinator for his father the past three seasons at Rabun County.

Jackson said he believes Rabun County is still the team to beat in the region. The Tigers were undefeated in region play a season ago and finished 11-2 overall.

Union County also made the playoffs from the region in 2018 with a 6-1 mark. The Panthers fell in the first round of state. Coach Brian Allison is in his second stint at Union County.

Elbert County was the third-place team from the region with a 5-2 mark. The Blue Devils also fell in the opening round of state and finished 7-4 overall.

Other teams in the region last season were Banks County (3-4), Putnam County (2-5), Social Circle (1-6) and Oglethorpe County (0-7).

Non-region opponents for Jackson’s team this season will be North Cobb, Bowden and Mt. de Sales. The Canes were 1-2 against those opponents last season but all three games were close. The two losses were by a combined eight points.

Summer workouts continue for players four days per week from 8-11:30 a.m. Workouts will include weight training as well as being on the practice field.

With several new and younger players on the 2019 team work this summer will be vital, Jackson said.

Monticello will open the 2019 season on August 23 against Mount de Sales at home.