Mosley prepares for trip to Chiles

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Area high school football teams in our region are looking ahead to their week six games, while also having to pay close attention to the forecast of that hurricane that’s now entering the southern Gulf of Mexico, with an expected Florida landfall later this week.

Coach Tommy Joe Whiddon and his Mosley Dolphins among those teams set to travel this week. Coming off this win at Wakulla, the Dolphins scheduled to play their next district game at Chiles Friday night in Tallahassee. With the storm possibly in the region late in the week, well that could change all that. The coach telling me Monday he’s going to move ahead with business as usual, knowing things can change in a day or two.

“We met this morning as a team and our mindset is we will prepare like it’s Friday until somebody tells us otherwise.” coach Whiddon said. “And then we’ll adjust accordingly. Kind of something that with our Orlando game, something that we kind of went through. I know there was a lot of back-and-forth, the game was at nine, and then it was at seven, and then it was at six. And then we tried to play at six but it got pushed back two hours. So I mean it’s something that we definitely, we’ve been through this year. So obviously this will be on a much larger, a much larger scale. And obviously safety is the most paramount thing in this situation. We want to make sure everybody is safe. And again will just play the game whenever we’re told to play the game.”

And that means the normal week of practice, at least early on in the week, as they prepare for a second district game and a second straight two hour road trip to play.

“I know Chiles’ record is 1-4, they’ve had one blowout loss.” says Whiddon “But three of their losses have been by a combined six or seven points. So every game’s kind of come down to the last play. They’re a really good football team and we’re definitely going to have our work cut out for us. We talk about the importance of the game. We understand if you want to make the playoffs you’ve got to win your district games. So we just want to talk about the significance of the game and make sure we’re locked in and we’re focused and have a great week of practice.”

Mosley beat Leon the week before last in their first district game. So this will be the second of four league games for the Dolphins. “We talk about the importance of the game.” Whiddon told me. “We understand that if you want to make the playoffs you have to win your district games. So we just want to talk about the significance of the game and make sure that we’re locked in and focused, that we get a great week of practice. Because making the playoffs is our ultimate goal and if you want to do that these are the games that we’ve got to win.”

That game, weather permitting, set for 7 eastern over in Tallahassee Friday. It’s one of several we’ll feature on Friday Night Overtime.

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