Dougherty County high school teams adjust to rezoning

ALBANY — As the city deals with the closing of Albany High School, the remaining schools are bracing for impact this coming school year. With practices set to begin in the next few weeks, football will be one of the first sports to see the immediate effect of the rezoning and in turn, consolidation of students in the area. As of right now, it’s smooth sailing.

At Dougherty High, one of the schools to see the biggest jump in numbers, head coach Corey Joyner said the new additions are a welcome to both the staff and the roster. He said, however, the change still has its drawbacks.

“It’s still an unfortunate event for some coaches or even for the kids to have to be rezoned and have to establish themselves at different schools, so that’s the unfortunate side of it,” he said.

As far as his team goes, he said, the integration of the new personnel has gone off without a hitch.

“These guys have fit into our system and fit into our locker room and made it better than what it was,” he said. “Coach Felton (Williams) did a great job of coaching the guys over at Albany High, so they came right in.”

“They fit in seamlessly, and then we’ve got coaches that were already at Albany High here to help them fit in, so it has been great. I’ve never seen a team jell as fast as this team has jelled.”

He said they’ve been on two team trips so far this summer, and he sees the chemistry developing into something special that will help when the season kicks off.

Monroe High also added several coaches to their staff, and head coach Charles Truitt credits the former Albany High players’ work ethic for allowing them to come in without missing a beat.

He said that, as of now, none of the spots on their roster are set, so it’s an open competition at this point.

“It’s been a lot of competition,” he said. “They came at the right time because we really don’t have any set positions at this time. It’s just whoever comes out in the summer practices and excels and does what we tell them to do will be the one to play in August.”

He added that they’ve seen a jump in the number of returning players who have showed up to this year’s summer workouts, due in large part to the competition they now face for their spots. Truit said that ultimately the position battles will make them stronger and the added bodies give them depth on both sides of the ball, so players don’t have to play offense and defense.

While Westover High wasn’t significantly affected by the closing, head coach Octavia Jones said they’ve had to deal with the shock of it actually happening when it did.

“We felt it was going to happen next year,” he said. “When we got to the end of the year and they hadn’t made a decision, I think it was like, ‘OK, we have one more school year and then they’ll close it next year.’ So I think we were all surprised by the decision when it came down.”

With teams gearing up for the season, he said, he expects the battle for the city to be a competitive one this year as usual.