Hapeville Hornets "Throttling Up" For The 2022 Season

The dead period for high school sports has come and gone and teams are getting back to work and for fall sports, including football, the start of the 2022 season is essentially here. And for the Hapeville Hornets football team, getting back to work after a week off means “it’s full go” says head coach, Winston Gordon, as they prepare the 2022 season.

“We don’t throttle down, right now it’s throttling up,” Gordon said as the Hornets get back to work with “installs” and getting new players used to how things are done “the Hapeville way” on their first day since returning from the dead period. An in addition to his coaching staff, Gordon says that veteran players have been helpful in helping establish the winning culture mindset with the younger players.

“I think that it’s embedded in the older guys. Veterans make sure they remind every of that and we (coaches) make sure we remind them. It’s a trickle down process in any organization and culture is the biggest thing to build in any organization,” Gordon said adding that the Hornets put a lot of pride into how they have been able to establish the program into one that is known for winning and being able to do “more with less” and it’s a “hard mentality” for them day in and day out.

And one of the ways that has been helpful for Gordon and his staff to leading the Hornets to winning ways has been the level of non-region opponents they face every season. In fact, Gordon says that anytime the Hornets were dealt a postseason loss, it is objective to face that opponent early on the following season.

As the case this season when they will take on Carver-Columbus, who defeated them in the second round of the Georgia High School Association playoffs last year, in their fifth game of the season. “I think Carver-Columbus was one of the better teams in the state of Georgia despite classification,” Gordon said of the Tigers, however Gordon says that was a loss the Hornets look to build off of and with a good amount of returning players and a seasoned offensive line, “We’ll come back into it with an edge and we’ll meet all opposition head on”.