#HSFT18 Stop No. 41 — Winona Tigers

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) — Winona’s history books were re-written in 2017.

The Tigers were the first in school history to call themselves, 2A North champions, but fell a game short of its ultimate goal, falling to Taylorsville in the 2A championship game.

“We go to State and leave unfinished business on the table, that hurts your ego a little bit,” senior right tackle and defensive end Jakob Welch said, “we made it to state, and you feel good about that, but we don’t walk high and mighty because we didn’t finish business.”

“Last year is last year, it’s in the past,” senior linebacker and running back Jalen Campbell said.

“We focus on the future this year. Last year wasn’t nothing to us because we didn’t get our goal, we’re working on getting our goal this year.”

“Our kids are hungry. They want to get better, they want to win. They don’t just want to win a state championship, they want to win and build a program that they can look back on in ten years and say I was a part of that,” head coach Joey Tompkins said.

Everything changes for Winona in 2018.

Due to consolidation with Montgomery County, the Tigers were reclassified to Region 5-3A, and due to the sudden change in classification, all but one division game will be played on the road.

Winona is prepared for the jump, bringing back sixteen starters from the title team a year ago.

“It don’t matter where we play, we play between the lines. We’ll play to the best of our ability ever single time we step on the field,” senior cornerback and wide receiver Davandre Bays said.

So the Tigers are once again the underdogs.

Winona looks to embrace a road warrior mentality, and for head coach Joey Tompkins, the role is nothing new.

“Last year we were the underdogs, this year we’ll be the underdogs in 3A,” Tompkins said.

“That’s fine with us. I tell our kids all the time, football is played in between the lines, it’s not played anywhere but on that field. Talk doesn’t really mean much to us. Being the underdog, being the favorite, that’s not a big deal to us either.”

Winona begins its season on the road at Strayhorn.