#HSFT17: Stop No. 49 – Amory Panthers

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) — Amory is ready to run to it.

The Panthers have always boasted a proud, tradition-rich program but it wasn’t until last season that the images of a State Championship returned to the thoughts at Amory.

The program’s first double digit win season in 6 years has second year head coach Allen Glenn believing they can sustain another deep run with a talented mix of experience and youth.

“I think we have some guys that are experienced and I’m ready to see them take the next step,” head coach Allen Glenn said. “For the young guys, I’m excited to see what they can do. We have some young guys that will have to play. We graduated 21 seniors that played a lot of football.”

“We have returning starters everywhere and we will replace everyone,” senior JJ Jernighan said. “We will be ready to compete and we’re all out ready.”

“We’re excited about the new guys that will prove themselves and the guys from last year that will take the next step,” Glenn said.

And that next step is a State Title, which Amory hasn’t seen since 1998.

And there’s reason to believe the Panthers are on that road to a Gold Ball as confidence is soaring following the school’s fourteenth division championship this past season.

“Confidence hasn’t moved since last year,” senior Manny Jones said. “We’re looking for a break-out season. This is my senior year and we’re trying to be great this year.”

There is a sense of confidence there with the success we had last year,” coach Glenn said. “I preach to them we can’t get complacent. We had a great year last year and a great senior class that led our team to 11-3 and making it far in the playoffs. That was last year. I want this team to put their stamp on the 2017 season and see where that goes.”

It’s last year that continues to drive the Panthers this off-season, as Amory knows they were close but just getting close this year won’t be good enough.

“When you get that close you always think about it,” Jones said. “There’s always a chip on your shoulder. You go hard everyday to get back where you want to be and we still have that lump in our throats so it would mean everything to us.”

“We came so close,” Jernighan said. “It was right there to take but it made us even more hungry and we’ll be ready to make another run for it.”

Amory will start the season on the road at DeSoto Central before returning to Longenecker Field to host Saltillo as the go into September.