Members of the Baylor School Red Raiders football team get ready on the line of scrimmage during practice at Heywood Stadium on Monday.READ MORE
Tennessee high school football tour takes in 16 teams
On the first day that area high school football teams began practicing in full pads, even Mother Nature was in midseason form.
The first day in pads is typically accompanied by stifling heat and humidity, but for the first time in the 14 years that I have crammed as many area teams’ practices into one day as possible, it actually felt like football weather.
As I exited my car just before 7 a.m. for the first of 16 stops, the temperature gauge on my car read 59 degrees. It never climbed above 83. “If you can’t enjoy a first day like this, you may as well find something else to do,” Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis said as his team took the field just after 8 a.m.
While Georgia high school teams must practice in shorts for two days before putting on full pads later this week, I also was able to stop by Ridgeland, which reached the Peach State’s Class AAAA state title game last season.