A new head coach along with new challenges lay ahead for the Port Gibson football team this season. The Blue Waves took part in Vicksburg High School’s football jamboree Friday evening and took on Yazoo County.

It was a rough two quarters for the varsity ,accepting defeat 25-8 to the Panthers. However, the defense began attacking and forcing turnovers early in the game while the offense looked out of sync.

“Yazoo’s a tough team. They’re very well coached, they’re physical, they’re big,” said Port Gibson head coach Trevor Porter. “Like I told our guys we just have to limit our mistakes. If you make mistakes against a team like that you’re going to fall behind real quick.”

Porter is excited about his new position and with his players buying in to his system and jumping on board to his coaching style, it helped ease his transition. He said dealing with players who have heart and never give up has a positive upside.

The high expectations Porter has for the team has trickled down to his players.

Right now Porter wants to establish a team mentality and said his players have done a job of doing that.

For 10 weeks the Blue Waves did nothing more than lift weights.

Going forward into the season, Porter hopes to see mistakes made on special teams in the jamboree dissolve.

“Our special teams were bad and we came out slow,” Porter said. “We have to get our kids to believe that they’ve worked hard and are capable of winning.”

The Blue Waves played a limited schedule last season and now has to institute new goals for the season. Porter wants the team to be competitive in their district; showcase players who can move on to the next level; and continue to establish a culture of hard work.

Playing and winning in the district Port Gibson is in will be a dog fight as every team seems to be able to provide a challenge for Porter, including recent state champions Hazelhurst.

“We have a lot of good teams that have good athletes,” Porter said. “They have good coaches at Franklin Parish. Wilkinson’s loaded with athletes. We have to be very well prepared to come out of that district with a seed in the state playoffs. That’s what we want.”