LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) — The Lowndes Vikings finished 14 and one last year, State Runners up in Class 7-A and they have a new coach in Jamey DuBose. Conditioning has been a little different thanks to the coronavirus, but the Vikings still have the same winning mentality.
"It's been great seeing the faces, it's been great seeing the excitement," said DuBose.
"It's very exciting," said Jacques Hunter, a senior defensive end at Lowndes. "Finally get back to normal!"
Normalcy. It's something everyone craves. The Lowndes High School football team got a little of it back when they started conditioning last week.
"We're still trying to move as much as we can, not only with conditioning but teaching football also in the process," DuBose said. "We spend some time on the field with the conditioning and football side of it, and then we try to transfer into the weigh troom."
"Conditioning, weight room, besides that, nothing really changed," said Leon Williams, a Lowndes senior linebacker. "We're all still together. It feels like a dream that we're actually back. Some stuff is still closed around here, but to come back to football, it feels like home again."
A home the Vikings wouldn't mind adding another State Championship to after coming so close last season.
"Really motivated, I mean, we lost," said Jacurri Brown, a junior quarterback at Lowndes. "Everybody forgets about 14-1. You lose one game, and it goes away. We have to go back and win and go 15-0."
Motivation for a talented group. Nine Vikings hold over 80 scholarship offers combined.
"On this team, it's a lot of talent everywhere," Williams said. "Even the people that don't have offers, they're still great players."
"It's a lot," said Hunter. "There's talent that hasn't been discovered yet, talent that hasn't been tested yet, talent that hasn't showed up yet. We're just waiting for that."
They're waiting for the season and making sure they're getting ready in the process.
"We're 66 days from our game that counts," DuBose said. "We still got a long ways to go and we need to get back as quick as we can to work. Hopefully we'll be able to get these footballs back out in the next few weeks and be able to have some football."
That's when the real excitement begins.
Lowndes opens the 2020 season against Hoover out of Alabama in the Corky Kell Classic in Atlanta on August 22.
