OPEN INVITATION: MCA hosts Brunswick, Long for Friday jamboree

Aug. 10—The Buccaneers haven't backed down from any challenge in the three seasons since head coach Bradley Warren returned to Darien to take over the program.

McIntosh County Academy is testing itself to open the season once again, beginning Friday when it welcomes Brunswick High and Long County to The Ship for a last-minute tuneup.

"We're thinking about running an old school jamboree," Warren said. "Bring your tailgate chairs, we'll put an area behind the end zone fence, and have a really good time with a scrimmage.

"Brunswick has got a good football team, Long has drastically improved, and we're competitive, so it ought to be a really good atmosphere for our fans around the area."

McIntosh is coming off a 6-5-1 season that saw the program advance to the second round of the Class A-Public playoffs for just the second time since 2013 despite opening the year 0-2-1 while being outscored 78-22.

But MCA learned a lot about itself over that stretch that featured Charlton County and a pair of Class 6A playoff teams in Brunswick High and Glynn Academy.

"There's a lot of ways to build a successful program; I've just always wanted to build it through playing high-level football," Warren said. "You can't play high-level football if you don't play those teams, so I try to have a good mixture."

This season the Buccaneers will open the regular season by hosting Class 3A Johnson on Aug. 19 before traveling to Glynn County Stadium to face Glynn Academy the following week. McIntosh County Academy will return to town Sept. 8 to compete in the inaugural Georgia vs. Florida Border Classic against West Nassau.

Any record from 3-0 to 0-3 is on the table for MCA, but ultimately thing that matters is what the team takes away from the contests. Thus far under Warren, the takeaway has more often than not been that the team can line up against anyone in the state.

"When you come into a program that's down, there's a lot of ideas out there of 'We can't play this team, we're not as good as that team,' and I just totally want to take that out of the mindset," Warren said. "We want to be able to walk on the field and say 'We're playing every night. We don't care who it is.' For the most part in my career, we've been able to compete. There's been a few times where we've gotten smoked, but we've also upset some teams by doing that.