File photoThomas County Central's Khalique Guyton (1) and Tykeem Wallace (8) and the Yellow Jackets host Cook for homecoming.

THOMASVILLE — It’s homecoming Friday night at the Jackets Nest.

Thomas County Central returns to the field following its first bye week with a non-region clash against the Cook Hornets. 

Central coach Ashley Henderson is confident his team will not let homecoming be a distraction to the Yellow Jackets’ chances of improving their record to 3-0.

“It’s all in fun but the show is 7:30 Friday night. That’s what homecoming is about. We have to get ready for that show — the football game — that’s the show. All of the other stuff that goes on, that’s for everybody else,” Henderson said. “We’ve just got to keep in mind that we have a football game to play this week and prep for.”

The Yellow Jackets started strong behind a pair of wins over Region 1-AA teams; 45-20 over Early County and 31-17 over Thomasville. Confidence is brewing with these Yellow Jackets in Henderson’s second year as coach.

“I think they’re confident. I think that’s all relative. How we handle success is going to be key right now  because we are getting better. So do we keep that humble heart and keep that blue collar mentality?” Henderson said. “We brag about work ethic, our kids do. We want to try to outwork our opponents. That blue collar mentality, we’ve got to keep that. We can’t  lose that edge. We haven’t done anything yet. Just winning the city championship is only one of our goals.

“The biggest game of the year is the one this week, it’s Cook County. Nothing we did against Thomasville spills over into Cook County. They’re hungry for a win and they would like nothing better than to come spoil our homecoming. We’ve got to be able to handle prosperity right now.”

POSITIVE WEEK OFF: Central enjoyed the first of two bye weeks last Friday night, and according to Henderson, the week off was a success.

“We were able to correct some mistakes. An early off week like this, you get to work on you. You don’t have to worry about game-planning for other teams,” Henderson said. “We were able to split our JV team and we had a ninth grade game and a JV game on Thursday and then practice again on Friday before we sent them home again for the weekend. We got a lot of work in this week.”

Central will play three straight weeks before its second week off on Oct. 4.