(This is the seventh in in a series previewing the 2026 high school football season. Richmond County coaches and players met with media during a county-wide sports press conference on Aug. 3 at Westside High School. Other stories can be found under the sports tab)
There have been a few changes at T.W. Josey, but football is on track this season.
“The house may have changed but the heart is still there. And don’t think for a second that we’re going anywhere or that we’re off the map,” said Gene Clemmons, Josey’s head football coach who is looking forward to this season in his second year.
Josey is currently meeting in the old Murphey Middle School building as the Josey campus on 15th Street is being transformed into a career education center that will open in the fall of 2029.
“Josey is alive and well and here for the foreseeable future,” he said.
With that, Clemmons said he’s got between eight and 10 starters returning this season.
The team finished 2-8 overall last season, but he believes those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“I believe we were a 5-5 team last year, and I think we left three games for sure on the board that we had an opportunity to win. And our job, the staff’s job, these young men on the stage’s job, is to figure out what we need to do to drink the gap between just being competitive and coming out with that win,” he said.
A competitive spirit is important because Josey’s team is a small one in player numbers.
“I want to be able to roll out there with 100-plus kids. It’s just not happening,” he said.
Josey’s first game out will be a tough one as the Eagles take on Westside Friday, Aug. 21. Westside finished the 2025 season with a record of 10-2, losing in the second round of the playoffs to Stephenson 37-35.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
