Each season, the countdown to the high school football season is the same.
After summer workouts comes the first official day of practice followed by the first day practice is allowed in pads.
The next step comes this week with scrimmages. Coaches get a chance to see and evaluate their teams in game-type situations.
The video helps them evaluate how the veterans and newcomers are coming together.
Players get to finally get to go head-to-head against someone besides their teammates.
Scrimmages vary in format. But they usually consist of two or three series of plays involving the varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams. These can be a set number or timed.
That’s the “controlled” part of the scrimmage where coaches can be the field and even in the huddles.
Some scrimmages also include work on goalline offenses and defenses.
The scrimmages sometimes end with a 12-minute regulation quarter.
All six parish teams are having scrimmages. Five are set for Thursday.
Airline is going against Northwood and Neville at Northwood, Haughton hosts Minden, Parkway hosts Ouachita Parish, Bossier hosts Red River and Benton visits North DeSoto.
Plain Dealing is scrimmaging North Caddo and Many at North Caddo.
All will begin around six although.
The three teams at Northwood had a combined total of 32 victories last season.
Airline went 11-1, Northwood 10-2 and Neville 11-2. The Vikings won the District 1-5A championship. The Tigers finished second in 2-5A and the Falcons second in 2-4A.
Neville features two players among Dandy Don’s LSU Sporting News top 30 college prospects — No. 13 Julian Burns (safety), No. 29 Ze’land Young (6-foot-4 wide receiver). The Tigers reached the non-select Division I semifinals last season.
Airline wide receiver Kenny Darby, an LSU commit, is No. 9 on the list.
Haughton should get a good test from Minden, which has 14 starters back from last season’s 8-3 team that finished third in 1-4A.
Parkway is coming off an 8-3 season. Ouachita Parish went 4-5 in 2024 and made the playoffs.
Bossier is taking on a Red River squad that went 7-5 and won the District 3-2A championship last season. The Bearkats are coming off a 3-7 season.
New Benton Head Coach Stephen Dennis will see how his team stacks up against two-time defending 1-4A champion North DeSoto, which went 10-3 last season and reached the non-select Division II quarterfinals.
The Griffins have two of the top players in Class 4A in quarterback Luke Delafield, a four-year starter, and running back Kenny Thomas. Delafield has committed to Northwestern State and Thomas to Louisiana Tech.
Benton junior quarterback Malachi Zeigler is one of the area’s top college prospects.
New Plain Dealing Head Coach Jerry Byrd Jr. is a former head coach at North Caddo, one of the Lions’ scrimmage opponents
All three teams in Vivian will be looking for improvement this season. Plain Dealing and Many were winless last season. North Caddo won four games but had to forfeit one.