High school football practice starts this week

If you are a fan of high school football, then it’s easy to conjure up an image of your team playing on a crisp, cool autumn night.

But for now, there’s no Friday nights under the lights. We’re in the dog days of summer and that means one thing: High School Football practice is about to commence.

High school football practice starts Friday for teams that compete in the High School League, and Friday’s weather should include temperatures in the 90s and humidity that make it seem like 110. Hanahan and Bishop England, teams coming off successful seasons, start their marches to the playoffs.

While football is about X’s and O’s, the first few days are more about H2O. Teams must play it safe as players acclimate themselves to the heat and humidity.

“You always try to use common sense when it comes to the heat,” said Hanahan coach Charlie Patterson, whose team lost some of the top players in school history off of last year’s team that went 8-3 and won the Region 8-AAA championship. “As a coach, you have to just know when enough is enough. The one thing is you make sure they have plenty of water at practice and make sure they hydrate when they get home.”

The Hawks lost Samuel Denmark, Tre Smalls and Dominique Green to graduation. The three were dominant football players and were all-state performers in track and field as well. Denmark, the headliner, graduated shortly after the 2015 season and enrolled at Virginia Tech, where he will play wide receiver.

Graduation wasn’t the only reason why the Hawks lost talented players.

“We had a couple players move on us,” Patterson said. “We had a couple of starters on defense move out. That will hurt our depth. But we have some players who will improve when they get more reps.””

Bishop England and Hanahan will begin a new era. The traditional rivals will be in the same region for at least the next two years. The teams include Hanahan, Bishop England, Timberland, Lake Marion and Manning.

At Bishop England, John Cantey is set to begin his ninth year as head coach. He led the team to state titles in in 2011 and ’12 and owns a 63-33 record overall. The Bishops are coming off a 6-5 record, finishing strong after enduring a five-game losing streak.

The team will be led by talented quarterback Albano, who has been turning heads since his freshman season. The junior completed 40 percent of his passes for more than 700 yards and 11 TDs. He also added a team-high 1,117 yards on the ground.

The Bishops will compete in Sertoma, playing Pinewood Prep at Johnson Hagood Stadium on Aug. 12. They begin regular season play Aug. 19 with a road trip to Class A power Christ Church.

The Hawks begin the regular season on Aug. 19 with a game against May River, a new school based in Bluffton.