The TSSAA Dead Period is over, and local high school football teams are starting to prepare and set their sights on the upcoming football season.
According to Huntingdon High School head football coach Eric Swenson, the Mustangs are sticking to the weight room right now and will be starting outside practices next week.
The first scheduled scrimmage for the Mustangs is August 2 against Jackson Northside with a scrimmage versus Covington that following Friday.
This year, the Mustangs will be participating in a multi-team jamboree at Lexington High School on August 16.
“We’ll probably play Scotts Hill,” said Swenson.
Huntingdon starts the regular season August 23 at McKenzie.
As Swenson detailed, they’ve got around 45 players on the roster so far, not including about a dozen or so incoming freshmen.
Swenson said that this year’s roster will include around 18 seniors with eight starters returning on defense and seven starters returning on offense.
The Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central Tigers and West Carroll War Eagles will be facing off to start the regular season August 23 at Central.
Central head coach Jamie Williams said team is down in numbers this year with between 25 and 30 going out for the team, including six seniors and four returning starters.
“We’re going to be small in number and size,” said Williams, “but we’ll just have to cope with it.”
The Tigers will be playing their first seven-on-seven scrimmage on Thursday against Gleason with additional scrimmages versus Scotts Hill and South Fulton scheduled for the coming weeks.
According to West Carroll head coach Josh Wolfe, the War Eagle have only one scrimmage scheduled on August 7 against Scotts Hill before they take part in this year’s jamboree at Henry County High School on August 16.
“We don’t know who we’re playing yet,” said Wolfe.
The team has started up with conditioning, and some players took part in some seven-on-seven practice last week.
But as Wolfe pointed out, official practice doesn’t start until next week, which has been set as Heat Acclamation Week by the TSSAA.
According to TSSAA regulations, teams will have to start with just helmets for a few days, then adding half pads, and finally full uniform practices.
Wolfe said they should have around 37 players on the roster this year with five seniors and about five offensive and five defensive starters returning.
After losing a strong group of 12 seniors from last year, Wolfe said they may be struggling with some inexperience in spots.
The McKenzie Rebels have already had some seven-on-seven action against Henry County and Lexington at Bethel University and will be squaring off again against Henry County on Thursday.
For their first full scrimmage, the Rebels will host Camden on Aug. 2 and then travel to Lexington for another scrimmage on August 9.
On August 16, The Rebels will be hosting Westview for a jamboree, featuring freshman, junior varsity, and varsity action.
