Friday night brought with it the return the familiar sounds of shrill whistles, coaches barking instructions and pads and helmets colliding.
The local high school football season began Friday night, with each of the seven high school football programs in Whitfield and Murray counties kicking off a journey that will last until early November, and, if any team is fortunate enough to make a state playoff run, maybe even longer.
Friday night was the culmination of long hours of offseason workouts, summer practices and fall camp, and each local team will hope to see the fruits of those labors this season.
We wish each of our local teams the best of luck as they battle through a rigorous 10-game regular season.
We also want to wish for a good season for the school bands, cheerleaders, administrators, officials and fans, who make football Friday nights special.
We’d be remiss not to also mention the hard-working athletes of the other fall sports.
High school football draws a lot of attention locally, regionally and nationally, but our local athletes who compete in volleyball, softball and cross country are equally worthy of recognition.
High school soccer season in Georgia occurs in the spring, but our local Dalton State College will hold its soccer season for men’s and women’s programs this fall, and the Roadrunner cross country teams will be on the trail and the golf teams will be on the course this fall too.
Good luck to all of the local athletes at all of our local teams playing all of the fall sports.