Football is Back: Let the games begin

ALBANY — Across Southwest Georgia, football teams have spent the summer lifting weights, running in suffocating heat and practicing against teammates whose tendencies they know almost as well as their own.

Friday night changes that.

For Lee County and Sherwood Christian, it is one final dress rehearsal. For Terrell Academy and Monroe, that first test came last week.

For Deerfield-Windsor, rehearsals are over.

The Knights travel to Valdosta on Friday night to renew their rivalry with Valwood, and this time there is no scrimmage label attached. The score counts. So does everything that comes with it.

And despite coming off another successful season, Deerfield coach Jake McCrae doesn’t want his players thinking about what last year’s team accomplished.

“We have to approach this season as if we are a completely new team, because we are,” McCrae said. “But make sure the standard remains.

“We have to play to the standard we try to live by here. Run to the football. Stay onside. Win individual battles and take care of the ball. Teams who do those things usually give themselves a chance to have success.”

Even getting to opening night has required some perseverance.

The relentless South Georgia heat has made practicing difficult, McCrae said, forcing coaches throughout the area to balance getting enough work accomplished with keeping players healthy.

There will be no easing into the schedule once Friday arrives.

Valwood is waiting.

The Knights have won three straight against the Valiants, including a 21-20 thriller in Albany last season. Valwood’s most recent victory in the series came Oct. 27, 2023, when the Valiants overwhelmed Deerfield 52-7 on their way to a state championship.

The rivalry takes on a slightly different look this year. The schools are no longer region opponents after Valwood dropped to GIAA Class AA, joining a region with Sherwood Christian, Southwest Georgia Academy, Brookwood and Southland Academy.

That changes the stakes.

It doesn’t necessarily change the rivalry.

Lee County looking for answers, not a trophy

About 90 miles away, Lee County will be playing for something entirely different.

There will be a scoreboard when the Trojans face Carver-Columbus, but Dean Fabrizio isn’t particularly concerned with what it says at the end of the night.

He wants information.

“We want to play a lot of guys in the scrimmage to evaluate our players and just work on getting better,” Fabrizio said. “That’s why we pick such a good opponent to play like Carver — a two-time defending state champion. We want to see what areas we have to improve on and get good work in.”

Finding those areas shouldn’t be difficult against Carver.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s first preseason rankings have Lee County at No. 6 in Class 6A. Carver is No. 1 in Class 3A after winning consecutive state championships.

That’s not an accident on Fabrizio’s part.

There is little value in arranging a preseason opponent that won’t expose mistakes. Against Carver, missed assignments, poor tackling and breakdowns are much more likely to be punished.

Better to discover them now.

The Trojans have plenty of established talent, but Friday allows Fabrizio to look deeper down his roster, evaluate position battles and determine which players can be trusted once the regular season begins.

Winning would be nice.

Finding out why they might lose later is more important.

Sherwood enters unfamiliar territory

Sherwood Christian’s Friday night might be called a scrimmage, but there will be nothing routine about it.

The Eagles host Brookwood at Legacy Field in their first competition as an 11-man football program.

For four years, Sherwood became accustomed to dominating eight-man football. The Eagles won three state championships and 45 of 47 games during that stretch, including their last 23 in a row.

Now comes the question that has hovered over the program all summer:

How does all that success translate to 11-man football?

Coach Doug Eason begins finding out Friday.

Sherwood has only four seniors, an almost entirely new offensive line and no Tripp Roberts, the two-time GIAA Player of the Year who now plays at Georgia Military College.

Instead, one of the Eagles’ most productive weapons from last season will take over the offense.

Chuck LaGrange moves from running back to quarterback after rushing for more than 1,200 yards as a sophomore.

And Brookwood isn’t merely a convenient preseason opponent. The Warriors will see Sherwood again as a Class AA region opponent, making Friday an early glimpse of a matchup that will eventually carry much greater consequences.

For Sherwood, the scoreboard is secondary.

Simply seeing 11 players line up on each side of the football will represent something the program hasn’t experienced before.

Terrell shows it can answer

Terrell Academy already knows how valuable a preseason test can be.

The Eagles battled Frederica Academy to a 21-21 tie last Friday in Dawson, and they were a penalty away from walking off with a victory.

Quarterback Bryse Peachey appeared to produce the winning touchdown with less than a minute remaining when he escaped pressure on fourth-and-long and found Cal Powell alone in the end zone.

A flag erased it.

The more important takeaway may have been what happened before that play.

Every time Frederica threatened to take control, Terrell responded.

Peachey fought his way into the end zone on fourth-and-3 for the Eagles’ first touchdown. When Frederica went ahead 14-7, he connected with Alex Klughart for a 75-yard touchdown. When the Knights grabbed a 21-14 fourth-quarter lead, Peachey answered again with a 55-yard touchdown pass to Colt Eisenhart.

Sophomore kicker Liam Kelley also gave the Eagles something to feel good about, making all three extra points and consistently sending kickoffs into the end zone.

Now Terrell has time to correct everything that didn’t go as well.

The Eagles open the regular season Aug. 21 at home against Southwest Georgia Academy.

Monroe gets an early look

Monroe’s first test was considerably less explosive but no less useful.

The Golden Tornadoes defeated Mitchell County 14-6 last Friday at Hugh Mills Stadium in a scrimmage where quarterbacks were protected from contact, taking away some of the athleticism both teams expect to use once the season begins.

Monroe nevertheless found enough offense — and plenty of defense.

Quarterback Jordyn Shorter connected with Dy’Karie Carr for a first-half touchdown, and Justin Grice broke a long run late that nearly allowed the Tornadoes to put the game away.

Instead, Monroe fumbled.

Its defense made sure the mistake didn’t matter.

With Mitchell County backed near its own goal line in the closing seconds, the Golden Tornadoes forced a fumble, recovered it and scored with seven seconds remaining.

It was precisely the sort of sequence preseason football is designed to produce — one unit making a mistake and another responding to it.

Monroe has until Aug. 28 to build on what it learned before traveling to Moultrie to open against Class 7A Colquitt County.

For Lee County and Sherwood, that learning process continues Friday.

For Deerfield-Windsor, there are no more mulligans.

The heat, conditioning, practices and scrimmages have all been leading here.

Friday night, football is back.