Sports Editor

The talking’s over. Now it’s time to play some football.

The Charles Henderson High School Trojans will head eight miles down the road tonight for their annual battle with the Pike County Bulldogs.

There’s a lot at stake in this game – county bragging rights, team pride and a chance for both teams to start the 2000 season off with win. A victory tonight says a lot about how the Bulldogs play against Eufaula next Friday night. The same thing can be said about CHHS and Opp in two weeks.

And the Alabama High School Athletic Association has the nerve to call this contest a Jamboree.

Jamboree’s are usually controlled scrimmages, with both teams getting shots on both offense and defense and with no kicking game. But PCH and Charles Henderson will feature a kicking game and four, 12 minute quarters.

Both Pike County head coach Wayne Grant and CHHS head coach Hugh Fountain agree that their teams are ready to get on the field and get it started.

"Our kids have been waiting for this for four weeks," said Fountain. "This should be one of the best games of the year."

Fountain said it’s always hard to prepare for an opening season game, but with Pike County he has some idea of what to expect.

"They know what we like to do and we know what they like to do," he said.

Grant said he and his coaches have been working on a the CHHS game plan for the past two weeks and he felt his team was prepared. Like Fountain, Grant said he had an idea of what the Trojans would do coming

into tonight’s game.

"I think they are going to do a lot of the same things they did last year," said Grant.

"They’re probably going to try and throw the ball a little more and Coach Fountain will have his offense changed around some."

Grant said he feels when it comes right down to it and the ball has to be punched across the goal line, Fountain will go to what has worked in the past.

"Coach Fountain and I are alike in many ways," he said. "He does a lot of the same things I do. You can go back and look at me for 25 years, I’ve done the same things I’ve always done. But the key is you have to be able to do those things good."

Most coaches would be ambivalent about playing a rival in the other teams’ home stadium, but Fountain said his players are actually looking forward to playing the game in Brundidge.

"Our kids like to play in Brundidge," said Fountain. "The stadium seating is a whole lot closer to the sidelines then Memorial Stadium, which makes for a good football atmosphere."

And that’s just fine by Grant and his Bulldogs. The second-year head coach said his players take great pride in playing in the ‘Dawg Pound’.

"The way we look at it is

we don’t want no one coming in here and winning," he said. "We want other teams to realize that they’ve been in a scrap once they leave here. Our players know when someone comes to play us here, we’re playing in our backyard."

Emotions play a lot in the game of football and Fountain said he wanted his team to go into tonight’s game with plenty of emotion and intensity. But he also said he wanted to keep that emotion in

check.

"I don’t want them to go out there with so much emotion where they are not focused on what they are there to do, which is win a football game," he said.

Grant said one area he was concerned with going up against CHHS tonight was depth along the line.

"That might tend to wear our kids down, especially in the fourth quarter," he said.

Fountain said he his most worried about the team speed of the Bulldogs.

"You can’t coach speed," he said. "And although they only have 22 players, all 22 of them can play."