Friday Night Football

With a week and a half of practices behind them, the Lion football team will host the opening scrimmage of the season Friday, Aug. 17, to officially kick off the 2018 season.

Albany is hosting the Coleman Bluecats starting at 5:30 p.m. for the junior varsity, followed by the varsity scrimmage.

There is no admission charge for the scrimmage.

The Lions will travel to Anson next Thursday, Aug. 23 for the second scrimmage, with action beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The regular season will open at home in Robert Nail Stadium on Friday, Aug. 31 against the Colorado City Wolves, with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

Head coach Denney Faith said that the first week of two-a-days, or summer workouts, went well.

“It was a good first week,” he said. “We have had a lot of position changes to deal with, as well as several guys that are new to the program.”

A total of 46 players are on the practice field, including seven seniors. Numbers for the team are up by several players over last year despite losing a large senior class.
The coach said he was encouraged about the attitude that he is seeing during practice.

“I’ve been impressed by their attitudes,” he said. “They are excited to get the season going and have been working hard.”

With several players having to learn new positions, Faith said that the defense is ahead of the game right now.

“Offense takes more time and it’s something you have to learn at full speed in live situations,” he said. “You really can’t get your timing down at the half-speed pace of practice. But that is what we have scrimmages for, to be able to get as close to a real game situation as possible and allow us to evaluate what is working and what isn’t.”

The Lions will be working with most of the offensive line returning, which the coach says does put the team a little further ahead than usual.

“We lost several of skilled people on offense, but most of the line is back,” Faith said. “However, we have had to do some shuffling around, so some of the guys are learning new positions.”

Along with timing on offense, the squad is still working on conditioning.

“We are making progress, but we aren’t where we need to be yet,” Faith said.

The staff is also looking for a new punter.

“That isn’t something that is easy to evaluate in practice,” he said. “We are waiting to see something in live situations.”

The coach said that the team is already showing several “bright” spots that hold promise for the upcoming season.

The Lions are picked by pre-season pollsters to win their district – for the 11th straight year – and advance far in the playoffs.

Pre-district games are set against Colorado City (Aug. 31), Dublin (Sept. 7), Eastland (Sept. 14), Hawley (Sept. 21), and the Brook Hill School (Sept. 29).

Following an open date on Oct. 5, district action will start Oct. 12 against Baird for homecoming.

Other district games include Roscoe (Oct. 19), Cross Plains (Oct. 26), Haskell (Nov. 2), and Hamlin (Oct. 9).