Dragons on the clock
♦ Pepperell has a short turnaround before their first preseason scrimmage this Friday.
Beginning Wednesday, high school football teams in Georgia will be able to don their pads for practice sessions as the start of the 2018 season inches closer.
The Pepperell Dragons will have a short turnaround as they will have only two days of full practice before their first scrimmage against Temple. Pepperell, as in recent years, elected to play two preseason scrimmages rather than playing a spring game.
Head coach Rick Hurst is eager to finally see his team on the field against an opponent.
“I just want to see our guys hit somebody else,” Hurst said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond.”
The team will travel to face the Tigers on Friday at 7 p.m. The Dragons’ second scrimmage will take place at Cass on Aug. 10.
Hurst, who has said leadership roles on the team were in short supply during the summer, is hoping to see his younger players play a big role in the game.
“Our older guys will only play a half,” Hurst said. “So we’ll play a lot of young guys in the second half and see if maybe someone will have a chance to do something. Especially from that young group I’m looking for some physicality, and possibly they’ll get to move up and play on Friday nights.”
The scrimmage against Temple was origi- nally schedule to be played at Dragon Stadium in Lindale, but Hurst said there are some places where the sod needed work and the school wanted the field to look its best when fans see it for the first time this season on Aug. 17.
“We did some work on the field, and we probably could scrimmage, but we want to move it so it would look a lot better for our first game against Darlington,” Hurst said. “There’s just some areas, and even though it’s new from last year, I’m hoping with this last round of work we can get it to look good on the 17th.”
The Dragons were forced to do something similar last season when the installation of the new field was delayed by weather and other issues. The Dragons ended up playing their home opener at Berry College’s Valhalla Stadium.
Hurst isn’t concerned with the venue change and actually thinks it might help his team as they have a stretch of away games after opening the season at home against Darlington.
“It’s no big deal. We don’t care where we play. We talked about playing in the parking lot if we have to,” Hurst joked. “I think it’ll be good us. After we play Darlington, we’re going to play three straight road games, so it’ll be exciting for our fans when we get back on the 17th.”