Practice begins for area high school football teams

ALBANY — The sound of whistles blowing and helmets crashing was enough to cut through the South Georgia heat on Monday, signifying the end of summer workouts and the start of football season.

Monday was the first day Georgia High School Association teams and Georgia Independent School Association teams could start mandatory conditioning drills.

It served as the beginning of what many area schools hope is a championship season.

Westover kicked off its mandatory practice schedule running drills in helmets and shorts.

Coach Octavia Jones said he is excited to get his team on the field, but many of his players had been working voluntarily throughout the summer.

“It feels good to be out here,” Jones said. “We got out of school on a Friday and started in the weight room that Monday. We’ve been out here the whole entire summer. Today, with it being official, it just feels really good. The guys are ready to get in pads and get an opportunity to strike each other.”

The Patriots won’t take the field against an actual opponent until Aug. 5 when they scrimmage Mitchell County.

Westover’s first official game takes place on Aug. 27 when they head to Hugh Mills Stadium to face Monroe.

Due to new region alignments, Westover will be the only team still in Region 1-AAAA. Dougherty and Monroe dropped down to Region 1-AAA, while Albany moves to Region 1-AA.

Just across town, Deerfield-Windsor opened its practice by running through some basic drills and measuring 40-yard dash times.

“It is a pretty fun time of the year,” Deerfield-Windsor’s Howell Logan said. “Today, we are just getting started. This is a good feeling. Every year around this time you get pretty excited because you know the season is coming.”

The GISA regular season kicks off one week before the GHSA season.

The Knights open their season with an Aug. 12 home game against Trinity-Christian Sharpsburg.

“Every year this time is very fun,” Deerfield-Windsor coach Allen Lowe said. “With high school kids you just go out and take what you’ve got right now. Everybody is pretty excited and we are too.”

Deerfield has a full schedule coming up as the Knights will not have a bye week. Instead of taking a week off, they will play Miller County in a GHSA-GISA crossover game that will be counted as exhibition for Miller but a regular season game for Deerfield.