Pine Belt local football team ready to start season

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – Coach Sam Arnett is giving a group of homeschooled students the chance to do something they love: play football.

“Because we homeschool, once you get past youth football, there’s nothing left for them,” Arnett said.

Arnett and the Pine Belt Spartans are preparing for their first season this fall, and he says it all came together after meeting with a group of like-minded parents.

“We sat down, talked and met,” Arnett said. “We held interest meetings to make sure we had enough interest to do it and make it happen — and I believe we will.”

The team currently has around twenty players, all between 7th and 12th grade.

And when the season starts, they will play 8-a-side football.

“As a father, I want to give him every opportunity possible to play the sport he loves because he’s only young once,” Arnett said.

Players don’t just come from here in the Pine Belt.

“I actually have one kid who is from Mobile, and two from Monticello, Mississippi, because they want to play football,” Arnett said.

The team will begin its path to a championship through its five-team conference in just over a month.

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