With a large number of returning starters back from last year’s squad, French Camp coach Nathan Wright is way ahead of where he usually is at this time of the season.
“We are at that place in the season where we need to play somebody,” Wright said. “We have done all that we can do and we are ready to see the reality of the situation. I’m anxious to see who is going to step up and who isn’t.”
The Panthers didn’t play in a jamboree last week like the majority of MHSAA schools.
“We have gotten where we have moved away from those,” Wright said. “The jamboree just doesn’t seem to help us that much. It doesn’t serve that big of a purpose for us. I know a lot of people are doing them but for us, it just never seemed to help that much.”
The Panthers will now open the regular season with West Lowndes.
“They have the same coach as last year and I’m sure he will continue to do what he does,” Wright said. “They will be very athletic and play great man coverage. They are a kind of catch-me-if-you-can kind of team. Maybe we can bottle them up. But they are a very tough matchup for us because they are so athletic. It’s just not a good matchup for us in game one but it’s the game we scheduled and the only one I could find so that’s what we are doing.”
The Panthers went 8-4 last season and beat French Camp 38-14 in week seven of the regular season.
“They have improve a lot in the last couple of years,” Wright said. “They won our division last year and it seems like they have gotten better each year here lately. The good thing is we will find out a lot about ourselves and maybe we can luck up and they haven’t done that much work throughout the summer. If we can find a way to play with their speed and keep their athleticism at a minimum, we have a chance to be successful.”
As of press time, a tie for the game had not been set. The game is slated to start at 7 p.m. but the MHSAA announced on Monday at teams may push the game back as far as 8 p.m. Wright said he would talk with West Lowndes and could see them moving that game back to at least 7:30 p.m. because of predicted extreme heat on Friday.
