WYNNE — The Wynne Yellowjackets will open 5A East play tonight at Brookland.
The Jackets are coming off a heartbreaking, two-point loss at West Memphis two weeks ago.
Wynne Yellowjackets coach Randy Coleman said his team had a great bye week last week.
“We have had maybe our two best consecutive weeks of practice the last two weeks. It’s been good. We’re making strides. We’re not a finished product by any means, but we’re definitely getting better on both sides of the ball and the kicking game,” Coleman said. “The one thing that you want to find out at the end of non-conference, number one for me has always been what do we need to improve. Where do we need to improve as we head into the conference season?
“One of the things that we found that we really need to improve in is special teams,” he added. “You look at the West Memphis game, in particular, and you can make a strong argument that special teams got us beat. We give up a kickoff return for a touchdown. We had an extra point blocked. We fell on a two-point conversion and got tackled at the one-foot line. Really if you look at it, those nine points was the difference between a victory and a defeat.”
The Jackets are entering conference play with a 1-2 overall record with a win against Marion and losses to Forrest City and at West Memphis. Brookland is 2-1 on the season with wins over Pocahontas and Melbourne and a loss to Batesville Southside.
Coleman said the Bearcats are “boring,” but he said that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“I say this in the most sincere compliment. They’re boring but they’re boring in a good way because they don’t overwhelm you in any area, but they’re just really good and solid in every area,” he said. “There’s no real glaring weakness where you say I think we can attack that or I think we can take advantage of that. They just don’t have that. They’re just a boringly good football team. Honestly, I say that with sincere compliments towards coach Hindsley and his staff and players. We tell our guys all the time that good football that is doing something simple repeatedly and that’s what Brookland does.”
In junior high action Thursday, Wynne beat Brookland, 26-0. Cross County fell to Marked Tree, 32-0.
Kickoff for tonight’s Wynne Yellowjackets game at Brookland is set for 7 p.m. The broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. on KWYN AM 1400/FM 102.9/FM 106.9 with the livestream at 6:50 p.m. on the Wynne High School Digital Cinema YouTube page.
