The official start to the high school football scrimmage season begins on Friday, with five games on the schedule.
It'll be the first chance for fans to get a glimpse of action two weeks before the opening kickoff of the 2023 campaign.
Yes, it's early, as area programs have only four days of fall practice under their belts. Still, several head coaches prefer to get the preseason scrimmage out of the way, so they'll have two weeks to potentially diagnose and correct any issues before Game 1 on Aug. 18.
North Hall head coach Sean Pender said he would like more days in full pads before a scrimmage but does like having two weeks to prepare for the season opener. The Trojans travel to Flowery Branch on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
"Honestly, I wish we were in pads two weeks before we play, but I like having a bye after our scrimmage," Pender said. "But we'll treat it as another practice against another team. It will allow us to see how we react to the lights on a Friday night and how we react against another team. It will help us with sideline management stuff and the other little things. So, it gives the staff time to work out any kinks we might not have thought of. There are a lot of benefits going into this for preparation for Friday night, not just trying to go out and win a ballgame. Plus, it'll give us two weeks to concentrate on fixing the mistakes and on White County."
Pender said the biggest focus going into the scrimmage will be working on tackling.
"I'm most concerned about our tackling because we're only in pads for three days [before the scrimmage]," he said. "Hopefully, we'll come out healthy."
As for Flowery Branch coach Jason Tester, he's a fan of early scrimmages.
"I like our format where we scrimmage early. It's the first day of school Friday, so it'll be interesting," he said. "I like that chance to evaluate; then we've got the two-week prep for Decatur. We'll bring the kids in and watch more film than we usually do. We'll get back to fundamentals, balance out our depth and ensure we are in a good spot. Then we'll return to our weekly routine the next week, heading into Decatur."
Tester said he hopes to get good film on several players for evaluation purposes.
"We want to get good film on guys that we need to get evaluated and to see proper execution. It's just the next step in the phase as we head toward Week 1," he said.
There are four other scrimmages on the slate.
Commerce will host Gilmer on Friday [7:30 p.m.], and head coach Mark Hollars is focused on discovering more about his team against another opponent.
"I want to see us establish a physical mindset that we want to play football field ... establish that fly-around-the-field mentality," he said. "Just see us execute our base fundamentals. It's about seeing if we've got our fundamentals down."
East Hall travels to Habersham Central. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
Habersham Central coach Benji Harrison expects his team to be physical.
"We want to be physical first and foremost, and we want to tackle well on defense," he said. "We also need to execute pretty efficiently on offense. These guys have played before.
North Forsyth was initially scheduled to play host to Dawson County for the annual Battle of Highway 9, but the game was moved to Dawsonville after the severe weather a couple of weeks ago destroyed the field at Raider Valley.
Regardless, the two are set to tee it up at 7:30 p.m. at Tiger Field in Dawsonville.
"I hope we stay healthy," Dawson County coach Sid Maxwell said. "We need to execute, be where we're supposed to be and have an understanding of the game. We have got to feel comfortable in what we're doing."
North Forsyth coach Robert Craft said he's looking forward to seeing his team play in a "game-like" situation.
"We're going to play a lot of guys," Craft said. "We want to see how our guys respond in a game-like situation. I love scrimmaging this first week. That way, you have a week to go back and correct some things. We want to get out there, shake the rust off in some ways, get used to the officials and play in a stadium before the opener. I think our next week of practice will be really improved because of it."
Towns County is set to host Copper Basin, Tenn., on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Towns County coach Jason Roquemore is looking for confidence and consistency in his team.
"[We need] to play with confidence and consistency both offensively and defensively," he said. "Answer what few questions we have about some spots, and stay healthy."
Johnson will travel to North Cobb Christian, and Lanier Christian is at Lakeview Academy. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
Jeff Hart contributed to this story.
