Game time has now arrived.
For this Friday a 7 p.m. kickoff on Legion Field will find the 2019 Indianola Academy Colonels beginning to chart their own course into the school’s record books.
Opening their new campaign with a match-up against Bayou Academy of Cleveland, IA Head Coach Tommy Nester’s District 2-3A squad will take on a familiar opponent.
However, this season the Colts of Bayou Academy enter their own new season as a 5A member school after being a district foe of the Colonels the past few seasons.
“Bayou Academy has a big team with good skill players”, said Coach Nester, “We will have our work cut out for us, but I think the kids will come out ready to play and give a good effort.”
The Colts completed last season with a deceiving 7-5 record; a span of time which saw them suffer two losses to the eventual state AAA runner-up Colonels.
That final loss was a season-ending 16-13 decision in the playoffs; a game which could arguably be called one of the most exciting contests played on Legion Field in recent memory.
Historically, this Friday’s game is the 33rd between these two schools and IA owns a 26-5-1 advantage over Bayou Academy in this long-running series.
Interestingly, Bayou Academy was also Indianola Academy’s first-ever football opponent when this series had its birth in the inaugural 1969 season.
Meanwhile, Coach Nester and the rest of his coaching staff were able to receive a live-action pre-season look at their team in last Friday’s jamboree hosted by Lee Academy of Clarksdale.
While claiming a 9-0 win over Marshall Academy of Holly Springs in their initial outing, the Colonels fell by an 8-0 margin during their clash with North Delta School of Batesville.
“We made some correctable mistakes”, observed Coach Nester. “We did not tackle as well as I expected but we played hard and appeared to be in good shape conditioning wise.”