HAMMOND, La - After back-to-back frustrating 1-9 finishes in the regular season, the Hammond Tornadoes are finally ready to turn the page and create a winning culture at Hammond High. Steve Jones enters year two at the helm after coaching 27 years at the high school level in Mississippi. 

Former Southeastern Lion head football coach Ron Roberts' son Ryan will most likely lead the offensive unit after starting four games at quarterback last season. He'll be protected by a completely green offensive line that has five new starters up-front. 

Jones said with a younger group quickly filling the holes on the offensive line, he's hoping they'll be a much  quicker unit to create holes for the skill guys to make plays in space.

"We lost our entire offensive line, but we've got some pretty good kids from the freshman team coming up," said Hammond head coach Steve Jones. "We were big upfront last year which really hurt us, we were slow. We've got a lot more quickness, we've got some pretty good running backs and we're putting the pieces together. We're a pistol, misdirection type of offense." 

Defensively the Tornadoes return ten of 11 starters back on defense which has quickly become the strength of the team. Strong Safety Tyrone Lewis anchors down the top of the defense with a shut-down corner like mentality. Lewis also has offers from more than 20 division-I programs.