Pelham Hornets hope to breed winning culture

PELHAM — What a difference a year makes.

Last year at this time, the Pelham Hornets were at home recovering from a 35-12 loss to Macon County in the first round of the Georgia High School Association Class A public state football playoffs.

This season, the Hornets are gearing up for a second-round matchup against Greene County (8-3) after earning a first round bye. The kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. at Pelham.

Coach Dondrial Pinkins and his staff worked this week to create high-pressure situations, complete with taped crowd noise in hopes that his young team will be prepared for the biggest game of their careers.

Before last year, Pelham hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2009. Pinkins said one of his top priorities was cultivating a program in which players had a winning mentality.

“It’s a big thing trying to get the kids hungry for success,” he said. “It’s something that hasn’t been a thing of the norm around here in Pelham lately, but we’re trying to get them accustomed and get them to be greedy to win … just breathe success and want to be great.”

If their 9-1 regular season record and region championship is any indication, the Hornets are on their way to creating a dominant program.

The turning point that helped fuel their desire to win was losing to Terrell County in the third game of the season. Pinkins said early that the team didn’t know how to finish games and it hurt them in that loss. The players decided they didn’t want to have that feeling anymore and rallied together to close out the regular season on a seven-game win streak. Pinkins said his team has taken the initiative to improve.

“Basically, just trying to make them become students of the game. We’re very young,” he said. “When you look at our young core, those guys are becoming passionate about the game week after week. They’re becoming involved on film study, they’re watching huddle on their own. You catch them out at practice, now they’re staying after on their own.”

He added that it’s great to see that they don’t have to be pushed. He’s hoping that hunger remains as they enter what will be the first playoff game for many of his younger players. The key for them, he said, will be to practice how they plan on playing.

“We basically just put the pressure on them in practice,” he said. “We try to have uptempo practices. We practice with crowd noise on the PA system. We try to put them in situations that they’re going to see on Friday night.”

Senior tackle/guard Austin Blanchard remembers the sting of the first round loss. He said it was a matter of being too confident.

“We came out like we were gonna win the game,” he said. “We didn’t execute like we needed to and we just let up.”

As the game approaches, Blanchard said it is imperative everyone remains on the same page as they have been all season.

“I’m just trying to tell them to stay focused and not be nervous,” he said. “We just have to stay humble and stay focused.”

For freshman quarterback Kendrick Patterson, who is one of the players starting in the postseason for the first time, the transition from middle school to starting varsity quarterback has been almost a flawless one. This season, he’s thrown for 1,841 yards and 23 touchdowns and rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns.

As his first playoff game approaches, Patterson said his goal is to help the team keep the rhythm and momentum they’ve built.

“We’re trying to keep it calm because we don’t want to get overexcited and wind up with an L,” he said.