Panthers’ season starts now

The Atlanta Falcons practiced at Grayson High School in Loganville on Friday night in honor of their annual ‘Friday Night Lights’ promotion but I have a feeling most of Houston County was in Perry for the season opening scrimmage between the Perry High School Panthers and the visiting Houston County High School Bears. The season is here and in the case of the Panthers football program it’s starting with three home games against some of the state’s top competition.

The Panthers hosted the Bears at 7:30pm Friday night and both team’s fans were well represented.In the case of the Bears, the Hoco Locos were definitely in attendance. Despite not counting against either team’s regular season record neither of these teams approached this intra-county game as anything but the real thing. In particular, Perry’s 2016 season doesn’t start and stop with the Bears, after three weeks without a game following that encounter, Perry will play consecutive non-regional home games. On Fri., August 26 the Panthers will host Rutland High School (Macon) and head coach Mark Daniel followed by a Sept. 9 matchup with the neighboring Peach County High School Trojans (Fort Valley) and their head coach Chad Cambell. The Panthers play their first road game of the season at 5A Harris County High School in Hamilton on Sept. 16 and don’t face a regional foe (4A-Region 2) until hosting Howard High School (Macon) on Fri., October 7.

In his second year at the helm, Panthers head coach Carl Dixon will have a number of key seniors that will have to play like it in order to for the Panthers to make a run for the roses in early November. Seniors quarterback Damion Bagley, receiver Jhimarre Brown, tight end/defensive end Caleb Battles, center Brant Daughtry and defensive tackle Carl Whitehead will all have to raise their games during this their final season as Panthers. A playoff appearance will depend on how the Panthers play within their region but until then there will be plenty of test early on. The grass is cut, the stands will be no doubt full with Panthers fans eager to see what this latest edition has to offer. There’s nothing left to do but get out on the field and play ball. Football Fridays are alive and well in Perry and less than a month from now we’ll get to see how well they’re actually doing.

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