Sneads, one of two area undefeated teams, comes off bye week and into Thursday game at Lighthouse

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Sneads football team is getting back into game week mode, after having the luxury of a bye week last week. Coach Bill Thomas and his Pirates heading into that bye with a perfect six and oh record, and now just one of two teams in our area that remains unbeaten. 6-0 Chipley is the other. The Pirates getting back to work towards a Thursday night game this week on the road in Pensacola, against a 1-5 Lighthouse Christian Academy team. Monday afternoon I spoke with coach Thomas via Zoom and asked him about making good use of a little “down time” if you will last week!

“Part of it was really about healing up.” coach Thomas said. “Getting the little bumps and bruises, trying to get over it. Getting a little rest. Even for the coaches too. You know to catch your breath a little bit. It’s a grind that starts, you know really seven days a week in July with it. And when you get to that you’re able to relax a little bit. It’s kind of peaceful on a Friday night being able to sit back a little bit, check out other peoples scores, listen to a game or two on the radio, go watch somebody else.”

As for being one of two unbeaten teams in the area, well that’s nice, and says coach Thomas, actually has some tangible benefits.

“It’s nice to be 6-0. It lets you relax a little bit more in a bye week. I always say it’s easier to get better when you’re winning. It makes it a lot easier to get better. They buy-in a little bit more, they have a little bit more fun with it. But there are still a lot more football left to play. And we’ve got to take it, and it gets hard not to overlook for who might be down the road this time of year. Especially you start looking at the SSAC stuff. And then you start looking at the FHSAA playoffs.”

The Pirates currently second in the rankings for the upcoming 8 team Sunshine State Athletic Conference playoffs that begin the week after next. St. Joe is first, Sneads second. And among the state’s 1S class teams, Sneads is ranked 11th, with St. Joe 10th and Chipley 9th.

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