West Lowndes High School Panthers

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — Big changes are coming at West Lowndes in 2015.

For one, the Panthers are changing divisions. They’ll have new competition to deal with next season. And the other, it will be a completely new team on the field for head coach Anthony King.

“We’re going to be really young,” coach King said. “We lost our quarterback and most of our skill guys so we will have to keep the ball on the ground and take advantage of our running game.”

With the loss of multiple players that played on both sides of the ball, West Lowndes will look to rebuild in 2015 around their strength: in the trenches.

“The strength of our team this year will be our offensive line,” King said. “We finally have several big guys we can depend on and we just have to get them strong and conditioned where they can go both ways.”

A major change for the Panthers to go along with new personnel will be the move from 1A South to 1A North next season.

West Lowndes will join the likes of Coffeeville, Hamilton and Smithville in Region 1-1A, which will make for a new and different journey.

“The expectations will be different since we are moving to the north,” King said. “Two out of the three years, the 1A State Champion came from our division in the south so going to the north I think will help us compete a little better.”

The hope at West Lowndes is the Panthers can mature quickly and make it back to the postseason for the first time since 2012. They’ll start their trek in 2015 on the road at Durant.