The two-week dead period — when athletes and coaches are forbidden to meet or work out on school grounds — comes to an end Monday for both the TSSAA and the GHSA. That means preparation for the rapidly approaching prep football season is about to kick into high gear for area programs.
A sport that once began around Labor Day weekend has steadily crept up earlier and earlier on the calendar through the years, and when Sunday arrives, we will be just 40 days away from regular-season games being played. Georgia schools can hold their first contest on Aug. 15, while teams in Tennessee kick off their season the week after that.
We’re less than 45 days removed from the TSSAA Spring Fling, and it was barely more than two weeks ago that the Times Free Press celebrated the 2024-25 school year’s top athletes with the annual Best of Preps banquet, but our sports staff is already well into planning for coverage this fall.
With the countdown to kickoff underway, we’ll begin publishing daily stories on the most important aspects of the 2025 season as we see them right now. That’s 40 consecutive days of stories to prepare you, the reader, for what to watch for this fall, including a list of 40 storylines to watch for related to Chattanooga-area teams.
(READ MORE: 40 storylines for the Chattanooga area’s 2025 prep football season)