Northside has “a long way to go” this season starting on Friday

The Northside High School Eagles will open their 2016 season against the visiting Peach County High School Trojans in a scrimmage on Friday night at 7:30 pm at McConnell-Talbert Stadium (The Mac).

Head coach and Athletic Director Kevin Kinsler and his staff have a veteran team but during a recent interview Kinsler stated that his team “has a long way to go” and is “pretty thin at some places.” Key players like seniors quarterback Tobias Oliver, receiver Terrell Bryant, free safety Tae Daley and backs Trayvon Bailey and Desean Dinkins are back from the team that finished the 2015 season with a 9-2 record at the state championships at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. “The kids are working hard and have good attitudes,” says Kinsler.

That hard work and less than two weeks of practice, less than one if you consider they just started working out in helmets and pads, will be put to the test against Peach County this week. “They’re really good,” says Kinsler about the Fort Valley school, “and it will be a good test to see where some individual players and what our strength and weaknesses are.”

Peach County head football coach and Athletic Director Chad Campbell believes the scrimmage is a positive for his program as well, “It’s [Northside] about as good a test as you can get,” he says, “Friday night is going to be a chance to try and play well while limiting mistakes.” He continued, “We will find out what we will need to work on.”

Following the scrimmage against Peach County, the Eagles will embark on one of the country’s toughest schedules with games against seven teams that qualified for the playoffs last season. “With the new region, each and every week is going to be a challenge,” says Kinsler. “Every Friday night it’s going to get harder and harder so we have to be ready to play.” Northside will play their regular season games in Class 6A’s Region 1 alongside Coffee High School, Lee County High School, Valdosta and neighboring Houston County High School.

The Eagles will host Warner Robins High School on August 19 and Henry County High School on the following Friday before traveling to Macon to play Westside High School on September 2. Westside defeated Warner Robins 21-20 in a scrimmage on Friday, August 5 at The Mac.

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