Gearing up for season
Local schools will hit the gridiron today for spring games
Several local high school football teams will play spring games today.
Excitement, youth and a need for more time highlight comments from local coaches this week as Coosa, Armuchee, Model and Pepperell gear up for the end of spring football practice with scrimmage games tonight.
Local football fans have four solid choices within the boundaries of Floyd County as each school will be playing host to its annual spring scrimmage and all will kick off tonight at 6 p.m.
Rome High played its scrimmage last Friday while Darlington and Unity Christian opted not to have spring games.
At Armuchee, fans will get to see a work in progress as the Indians take the field for the first time un- der the direction of former Armuchee and Shorter player Muhammad Abdellatif.
Pepperell takes the field looking to find some players to fill in for several departing seniors. The Dragons will be moving into a new region and classification next season, jumping from Region 7-AA to Region 5-AAA.
Model, fresh off back-to-back winning seasons and back- to- back playoff trips, has to replace 15 se- niors. The Blue Devils have spent a lot of time getting stronger in the weight room, and hope it shows on the field tonight.
Coosa had a winning record last season, but just missed the Class AA playoffs, and returns a lot of talent.
That talent will be on display tonight when the Eagles take the field.
The teams will shift to conditioning and off- season work after the games while preparing for the 2014 season.
Most local teams will play a week earlier than usual to open this year’s season.
Armuchee, Coosa, Darlington, Model, Pepperell, Rome and Unity Christian all have opening games scheduled for Aug. 22.