CCHS dominates MASE In DTC Jamboree
Even though the 2025 football season won’t officially begin until August, the Cleveland Central High School Wolves gave fans a sneak preview of how the team is developing in their spring game against Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering at the Delta Touchdown Club Spring Jamboree on May 13 at Travis E. Parker Field at Horace McCool Stadium.
The Wolves looked strong on both sides of the ball as they defeated MASE 14-0. Last year, both teams had great seasons. The Wolves went 12-1 and advanced to the Mississippi High School Activities Association 5A North Half Title game, and MASE went 13-1 and won the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association 1A State Football Championship,
CCHS Head Football Coach Kendrick Woodard was happy with the overall performance at the scrimmage.
“The defense did an outstanding job,” said Woodard. “Offensively, they threw some fronts at us upfront that we hadn’t prepared for in the spring. It was a new defensive front. With the guys being young up front, I thought they did a great job of adjusting. We didn’t do our best, but that’s why we play in the spring game. We want to get some guys some quality reps and try to get better. Hopefully going into summer camp, we can get some things figured out. Overall, I thought the effort was tremendous.”
Javarious Griffin, who will be a junior in the upcoming school year, had a huge night on offense as he marched on a long run for a touchdown and galloped down the field on another score after catching a pass from quarterback J’Karvey McGee. McGee will be a senior entering the 2025 season.
On defense, Woodard highlighted the play of linebacker O’rhyon Burnice and defensive end Antwon Thomas. Thomas and Burnice will be seniors entering the upcoming year.
“That whole defensive group did an outstanding job of playing fast and physical and getting after their butt,” said Woodard.
While the Wolves will have a few guys returning from last year’s team, they still lost a lot of players to graduation.
Woodard said the win in the spring game was a huge boost for the team.
“It was a good thing,” said Woodard. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better. After the guys got four weeks of competing against each other, it was good to get a chance to compete against someone else. Overall, I was satisfied with how the spring turned out. We’ve got some work to do on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to get those things fixed, but hopefully we can those things worked out this summer.”
Cleveland Central also had a junior varsity team play in the jamboree as they lost to the Humphreys County junior varsity team in a close game.
Woodard was proud of his young players in the JV game.
“They did an outstanding job,” said Woodard. “You can’t ask for a better effort. A lot of those guys have some time to play. We ended up with 40 something eighth graders which is tremendous for us. We try to give all of those guys the opportunity to play.”
CCHS will start the football season on Aug. 29 when they travel to Clarksdale to play Clarksdale High School.