THOMASVILLE — A week off has rejuvenated the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets just in time for the defending Class AA champion Callaway Cavaliers.

Central head coach Ashley Henderson likes the mindset his team has following the first of two bye weeks this year, while also riding a two-game winning streak.

“Coming off of the Godby (Fla.) game, they were ready to go back to work. They did a really good job this off week, just being really business like. It wasn’t a whole lot of rah rah, just very business like,” Henderson said. “Again, a lot of one-on-ones. We did start looking at some Callaway stuff, but a lot of it was Central versus Central, just best on best; two versus two. We also played a ninth and a JV game last week.

“All in all for the week, we started three different sets of kids; varsity, ninth grade and JV. We’ve got 117 kids on the roster. We need to play as many as we can. We were able to do that last week and get a lot out of the off week competing against ourselves as well.”

Central’s two-game winning streak came against Lake Placid (Fla.) and Godby. A strong showing Friday night will have the Yellow Jackets flying high heading into region play on Oct. 1 against Monroe.

“I think offensively we’ve gotten a little bit better every week, certainly not anywhere near where we want to be. But I think we’re getting better, maybe finding out who we are,” Henderson said. “At the same time, our defense has definitely played better every week.

“I like our depth. I like where we stand. We’re getting better each week.”

The Yellow Jackets are 2-2 but face their toughest challenge of the season. Callaway is 4-0 and has won 16 of its last 17 games. The Cavaliers won last year’s meeting 16-14 at the Jackets Nest.