The Brookhaven Academy Cougars open the football season at Wayne Academy on Friday
Published on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, 8:00 a.m.
- PHOTO BY CLIFF FURR Brookhaven Academy’s new head coach Ryan Ross directs a defensive lineman during practice on Tuesday. The Cougars begin their 2024 regular season on Friday with a road game at Wayne Academy.
Member schools of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) can choose to play a Week 0 football game to begin the regular season, and that’s exactly what Brookhaven Academy and its new head coach Ryan Ross are doing this week.
Ross and his team will take Highway 84 and then head east to Waynesboro, where they are scheduled to face the Wayne Academy Jaguars on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Jaguars play in the MAIS 4A class and finished last season with a 6-6 record. They lost to Bowling Green School in the first round of the playoffs.
Last season was Brookhaven Academy’s first season playing in the MAIS 5A, and the team finished 2-8 under former head coach Reggie Lea.
Wayne and Brookhaven were once members of the same 4A district, with BA winning 35-14 the last time the teams met in 2022.
The Jaguars are led by Todd Breland, who led programs at Laurel High and South Jones earlier in his career. Breeland led Laurel to the MHSAA 5A state title in 2014.
It will be the first game for the Cougars under Ross, a Brookhaven native and former head coach at Loyd Star, Ocean Springs and Long Beach.
Ross and his team were originally scheduled to open the season next week at home against MAIS 6A heavyweight Hartfield Academy, but now they have the chance to travel to Wayne Academy and play a similarly sized school to start the year.
BA was set to become the largest school in 4A when the last round of reclassifications took place two years ago, but the decision by Park Place Christian Academy in Pearl to play 8-man football meant the Cougars had to move up to 5A.
Ross and his team of Justin Daley, Bubba Keene, Tyler Russell, Joseph Puckett and Hunter Przytarski don’t have any footage of Wayne, but they know how the Jaguars will operate in their shotgun formation.
Braden Revere, Austin Tanksley, Nathan Poole, Asher Newman, CJ Chevralier, Will Thomas Calcote and Jon Mark Beasley make up the Cougars’ graduating class.
The Cougars are expected to field about 24 players from grades 9 through 12 on Friday.
Whether he plays running back or quarterback in BA’s split back veer offense, Revere will be a player with the ball in his hands. Tanksley moves from the line to the backfield and Poole is a returner as a tight end. Chevralier and Calcote are two experienced returners on the offensive line and Newman can play wideout or defensive back. Beasley is new to the team after playing basketball previously in his career.
“We had a good practice game last week against Bowling Green School where we got a chance to film some things at game speed,” Ross said. “We came in on Monday and used that to correct some things and the guys have been working hard to get ready for Wayne.”
The hard work came during a time of brutal summer heat and Ross said hydration was a particular concern for his team.
On Tuesday, the team took drinking breaks in the shade of the covered softball facility, which is located next to the practice soccer field.
“Knock on wood, but so far no one has had to miss a game because of fluid issues or cramping,” Ross said. “You know that stuff like that can happen when you’re fully suited up and guys are running both ways at game speed, but we’re going to do everything we can to get the kids ready.”
