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For some, it seems the countdown to the new high school football season has been going on ever since the final horn sounded in 2011.

After months of offseason work and preparation, our local teams will return to the field Friday night for games which count. Players and coaches at Winder-Barrow High School, Apalachee High School and Bethlehem Christian Academy are all eager to see what 2012 has in store.

As we detail in our football preview section included inside today’s edition, there are several new factors involved for the Bulldoggs, Wildcats and Knights. WBHS will be featuring a new offensive and a new defensive scheme. AHS will be in a new region and classification, as will WBHS. For BCA, it’s about competing for the first time with a full varsity schedule of games. [Full Story »] 

In more than two decades of covering high school athletics, you learn a thing or two about coaches.

When it comes to quotes, some coaches are pretty honest about themselves and the team they coach. If the team is not playing well, they’ll say so — to a degree at least.

Some coaches hate having to work with the local newspaper. While I have not had that experience (for the most part) in Barrow County, I’ll always remember one coach who simply hated the press. He didn’t care if the story praised him to the moon, he had no use for newspapers and even less use for the local sports reporter. It became a mission of mine to make this coach at least respect me, even if he never read anything I wrote about him or his team. [Full Story »] 

The games will technically be scrimmages, but for football starved junkies like myself, it won’t matter.

Our local teams will all be on the field this Friday as they each take another step toward the official start of the 2012 season. Winder-Barrow High School will scrimmage at South Forsyth for the second consecutive year. (South Forsyth boasts one of the best high school football facilities I’ve seen in our state.)

Apalachee High School will get to play at home against Elbert County. Tyshon Dye, who will be playing for Clemson next year at this time, is one of the top running backs in the state and will roll into town along with his Blue Devil teammates. [Full Story »] 

I understand the need to save money and cut costs. Most people do.

However, a recent decision by the Barrow County Board of Education may save a few dollars (maybe), but in the end can only be viewed as a poor decision made without applying common sense. In a cost-cutting move, school system bus drivers, who had been used to transport student-athletes to and from events, have been trimmed away. In their place, coaches will transport athletes to these events. While it may seem this is a good idea on the surface, it’s really not and that’s why you have to look under the surface to see why in many cases.

Several coaches have relayed to me that when system higher ups met with them about this plan, that officials really weren’t interested in the concerns the coaches brought up. Legitimate questions were raised, but were met with the attitude of “this is what we are doing, don’t complain about it, just get on board.” [Full Story »] 

Most high school football coaches will quickly tell you the summer is vital to preparation for the upcoming season.

Apalachee High School offensive coordinator Joel Miller would certainly agree.

“To me, the summer is possibly the most important time,” Miller said. “In the spring, we were successful in implementing our core plays, we use summer workout times to get numerous repetitions running those plays. The kids having a good grasp and understanding of the offense is important, especially this season when we will only have two weeks to prepare for our scrimmage, where in the past we have had three weeks.” [Full Story »]