Tomcats could have different look in ‘16

BROWNSVILLE – After an eventful first season as the head football coach at Haywood, Steve Hookfin might be even more ready for this season than he was for last year’s.

“We’ve been here over a year now, and it never lets up,” Hookfin said. “There are good sports teams throughout this school, but we appreciate the excitement and enthusiasm there is for football here.

“Places like this are why you get into coaching. The expectations are high, but so is the support. I love it here.”

The Tomcats are coming off a season in which they overcame a mid-season slump to win a couple games at the end to qualify for the Class 4A playoffs.

They were eliminated in the first round by Memphis East, but the Tomcats were emphatic in the way they made it to the postseason, outscoring their final two opponents 94-7.

But things will look different for Haywood this year.

There’s no blue chip prospect on the defensive line like there was last year with Emmit Gooden. Even without Gooden, that line would’ve still been formidable, but the players who made it so formidable are mostly gone.

“We don’t have those guys, but that doesn’t mean there’s no one there,” Hookfin said. “That’s another reason to love coaching here. You may lose great athletes at a certain position group, but there’s more coming up behind them.”

The strength for the team appears to be the offense this season.

The offensive line will be bigger this year with more experience coming back, so getting into the backfield will be more difficult for opposing defenses.

Then once players do get into the backfield, there’s a lot of speed back there to try to chase somebody down.

“The good thing about this year is we had the entire offseason with these guys, so we were able to install more of an offense I’m comfortable with and our offensive coordinator, Jarrod Kornegay, he’s more comfortable with,” Hookfin said. “I think we can be more confident in what we’re doing back there before the ball is snapped.”

The Tomcats are still having to deal with Region 7-4A. It may not look as difficult across the board as it did this time last year, but there are a lot of teams that could be even better than they were last year with personnel that didn’t play a lot in 2015.

“That’s one of those things you get used to about high school football,” Hookfin said. “Most of the teams in our region will look a lot different. Will they look better? Hopefully we will.”

Brandon Shields, 425-9751

Haywood Tomcats

Last year’s record/finish: 6-5 and first round of Class 4A playoffs/Fourth in Region 7-4A

3 key returners: Xavier Walker (RB); Tillman McRae (QB); Quay Jones (DL)

3 key games: Sept. 9 vs. Lexington; Sept. 23 vs. Crockett Co.; Sept. 30 at Hardin Co.