No Pine Hills Academy football team had ever competed in the state playoffs. So imagine the shock waves around the state when the Wildcats went to perennial football power Tri-County and knocked off the Hinds County team 21-14 in the first round of the MPSA&160;Class A state playoffs.

&uot;We got up there and played our best team game of the year,&uot; said Pine Hills head coach Tony Johnson, the 1999 Natchez Democrat Area Coach of the Year. &uot;The players communicated with each other and spent a lot of time during the week watching film. They were actually predicting who would run the ball.&uot;

Pine Hills won a South State contest in 1971, but there was not a playoff format at that time.

Pine Hills was coming off a 3-7 season in Johnson’s first year, as he dressed out 13 players.

A total of 25 came out this year.

&uot;We just went into the school and tried to get as many boys out as we could,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;Then we worked as hard as we could. The boys did everything we asked of them.&uot;

The Wildcats started off the season with a heartbreaking 14-12 loss to Tallulah, which won District 6-A after finishing unbeaten during the regular season.

After a 54-0 win over Rebul came a 34-7 win over Briarfield and 21-14 win over Union.

In the fifth game of the year, Pine Hills defeated Sharkey-Issaquena 47-15, totaling 377 yards in offense as running back Chris Guidry and quarterback Jonathan Honea both went over the 100-yard mark in rushing.

&uot;That was when we realized how good we could be, beating a double-A team like that,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;The kids saw that if they wanted it bad enough, they could go and get it.&uot;

Pine Hills’ only other loss of the regular season was a 14-13 setback to Tensas, which finished second in district.

&uot;It really wasn’t hard getting over those losses because we knew we played well enough to win,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;We had 300 total yards against Tallulah, it just came down to not getting it done inside the red zone (opponent’s 20-yard line). We just had too many mental mistakes.&uot;

The Wildcats finished 10-2, losing to Tallulah in the second round of the playoffs.

&uot;I think the hardest part was getting the kids to believe in themselves,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;We had a lot of great leaders in players such as Jonathan, Shane (Lofton), Chris and Jeff (Whittington) and a lot others. A lot of them were just tired of losing and wanted to make a change.&uot;

Johnson, 36, came to Pine Hills from Arkansas, where his wife Robin is from (&uot;I owe her a lot of credit for our success,&uot; Johnson said).

The Greenwood native said he uses the same philosophy as former Southern Miss coach Curley Hallman, who he worked under as a graduate assistant and DeSoto coach Jay McGregor, who he also worked under.

&uot;This has definitely been my most gratifying year,&uot; Johnson said

&uot;I think we’ll have another good bunch coming back next year,&uot; said Johnson, who will first be managing the Pine Hills baseball team. &uot;We’ve got 10 or 12 ninth-grades coming up. We want be as experienced, but we should have some talent.&uot;