#HSFT16: Stop No. 53 – Winona Tigers
| CLASS 2A | REGION 4 |
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| HEAD COACH: Joey Tompkins |
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| Aug 19 | Montgomery County | Home |
| Aug 26 | Choctaw County | Home |
| Sept 2 | French Camp | Away |
| Sept 9 | JZ George | Home |
| Sept 16 | West Lauderdale | Away |
| Sept 23 | Water Valley | Away |
| Sept 30 | Bruce* | Home |
| Oct 7 | East Webster* | Away |
| Oct 14 | Eupora* | Away |
| Oct 21 | Okolona* | Home |
| Oct 28 | Calhoun City* | Home |
| *District games | ||
WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) — Winona returned to being a formidable force in high school football last season.
Tigers notched a 9-win season for the first time since 2010 and in the process, head coach Joey Tompkins saw his team win their first playoff game since 2011.
Barriers were broken a season ago and the Tigers hope their mindset will get them over the top despite returning a young team.
“They’re confident,” coach Tompkins said. “It’s a team that doesn’t know we lost 19 seniors. They don’t act like it. Lot of ways, that’s a good thing. We will be good skill position wise. We’ll be young but we’ll have a lot of those young kids needing to contribute early.”
It is a young team returning at Winona, as the Tigers have just five seniors listed on the roster for this season.
Being that young means those five seniors will have to lead the youth to mature and grow quickly before Region 4-2A begins at the end of September.
While the Tigers are young, they still have the swagger to be the best and to win and that comes from their head coach.
“That comes from Coach Tompkins,” senior Marquitio Gross said. “He says even though we’re young, we still have the ability. He pushes us past our abilities and that gives us confidence.”
“People are telling us we won’t accomplish the goals that we had last year,” senior Marquavious Baskin said. “I try to lead them to prove those people wrong.”
And proving the naysayers wrong is what drives Winona towards the top, and I do mean the top in class 2A.
The Tigers don’t short change themselves on their ultimate goal for this season.
“Go in and ask our kids right now and they’ll say we want to play 16 games and win the last one,” Tompkins said. “We’ll never change that philosophy and I got that from coach Junior Graham when I coached with him for 12 years. It may not be realistic sometimes, but each and every year that will be our goal.”
Just like my coach says, play 16 and win the last one,” Baskin said. “I want to take these guys there on my senior year.”
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