The 2024 high school football season is a little over three weeks away from kicking off.
The countdown continued on Monday as Cromwell Media and ESPN Owensboro hosted the first-ever media day for high school football teams in the area.
In addition to all teams that play in the 3rd Region (despite regions being different for football), the event was attended by schools from southern Indiana as well as Henderson County.
Coming off only their second double-digit win season in program history, Grayson County was a big talking point amongst those in attendance.
The Cougars were historic a year ago. They had their longest win streak, hosted a pair of playoff games, and won their first game in the postseason since 2018.
It’s safe to say that expectations have changed for the Orange and Blue and they were taking notice of it.
“We don’t want to be one-and-done with that kind of season,” head coach Bryan Jones told the media. “We want that to be the standard.”
Grayson County played most of last year’s district season as an unknown. They hadn’t played North Bullitt or Bullitt Central in almost a decade and had never matched up with Seneca or Moore, in ways, that allowed the team to fly under the radar. This year, that won’t be the case.
“We got to play the underdog role every week (last season),” Jones said. “This year, we will be the guys with targets on our backs. We are going to have to approach things differently and learn how to play from the driver’s seat.”
One of the returning stars for the Cougars is running back Kadin Hanshaw. The sophomore rushed for over 1,300 yards a year ago and was named the district’s player of the year. Recently, he and Greyson Chaffins and Kolby Chaffins were also named to the preseason watchlist by the Cats Pause.
“I knew two or three years ago that he was a special athlete,” Jones said about the Cougar running back. “For a 14 or 15-year-old kid in 5A football, and those cats in Louisville we are playing aren’t small, I wasn’t quite certain it was going to be almost 1,400 yards and just shy of 25 touchdowns.”
Jones was joined at the podium by seniors Greyson Chaffins and Wynsten Woosley.
Chaffins returns as the leading receiver from last season’s squad and has high expectations for himself, and quarterback Kolby Chaffins.
“I set a goal for myself before the season starts to have 1,000 yards receiving this year,” Chaffins said. “I want to have around 10 receiving touchdowns, so I am looking for a big year.”
Woosley is one of the few returners who has experience on the offensive line and is taking a larger leadership role because of it.
“I want to win, so I want the guys beside me to know what they’re doing, so we can win more ball games,” Woosley said on the leadership role. “If you don’t have people beside you that know what they’re doing, you can’t win ball games.”
The 2024 edition of the Grayson County Cougars will open the season with the Tobacco Bowl against Edmonson County on August 23.
The recent matchups have been tilted in favor of the Cougars, but Edmonson County lost by only one score a year ago.
The Wildcats, who were at the podium before Grayson County, weren’t shying away from that fact. When consistently asked about team goals, the players said returning the tobacco stick to Brownsville is at the top of the list.
“That is a big game, there is no doubt about it,” Jones said. “Some of (the players) are friends, and that’s okay, so long as they’re not friends on August 23.”
The Tobacco Bowl will kick off that night at 7:00 pm from Cougar Stadium. K105, and K105 Digital Productions, will have the broadcast for that contest and all season long.
By Sam Gormley, Play-By-Play Announcer/Local Sports
Reach Sam at sam@k105.com
