The familiar sound of pads popping and fans cheering will begin to echo up and down the Kanawha Valley this week as high school football returns.

Capital and George Washington open the season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Laidley Field and the schedule continues with games Friday and Saturday.

Among Friday's games, coach John Sowards takes over at Nitro for offensive guru Scott Tinsley, who took the head-coaching job at WVU Tech, as the Class AAA Wildcats play host to AA Poca. Winfield begins its first season as an AAA school, playing host to county rival Hurricane.

In other games involving Kanawha Valley teams Friday, Riverside plays host to South Charleston as the Warriors hope to continue its resurgence under coach Ralph Hensley and St. Albans visits Ripley as the Red Dragons look to build on last year's AAA state championship game appearance.

Also, Chapmanville plays at Sissonville, a game involving two AA playoff teams from a year ago; Buffalo visits Gilbert, a rematch of the opening round of last year's Class A playoffs in which the Bison won 34-6; Scott plays host to Roane County as the Skyhawks prepare to replace Kennedy Award winner Jordan Roberts, and Herbert Hoover plays host to Ravenswood.

Perhaps no team had more bad luck last season than South Charleston.

After a 0-4 start, the Black Eagles posted a 5-1 record and just missed out on the AAA playoffs. Among those five defeats included a one-point loss to George Washington, the No. 1 team at the end of the regular season in AAA; a one-point loss to SA and a four-point loss to state champion Parkersburg.

Gone from SC is Deion Spurlock, who passed and rushed for more than 1,000 yards. But Senior Marcel Brown, who was expected to share time with Spurlock last season before he broke his arm a week before the season opener, returns and sophomore Tyler Harris is considered a top-notch athlete under center.

"We were very frustrated with our season last year,'' said SC coach John Messinger. "We felt like we were better. We learned some real valuable lessons from that.

"We're going to grow. At this point we're pretty confident in our quarterback. We've got some strong, senior leadership. I think if we can play four quarters of good, sound football we can stay with anybody on our schedule.''

Messinger said he has a good feeling about this year's group.

"This is the first feel-good football team I've experience in my eight years at South Charleston,'' he said.

"We've got a group of kids that are going to set a good example for the young kids. They're going to be good students [and] good kids in the school building. If we can do that we can be good football players.''

Reach Tommy R. Atkinson at 348-4811 or tatkin...@wvgazette.com.

The familiar sound of pads popping and fans cheering will begin to echo up and down the Kanawha Valley this week as high school football returns.

Capital and George Washington open the season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Laidley Field and the schedule continues with games Friday and Saturday.

Among Friday's games, coach John Sowards takes over at Nitro for offensive guru Scott Tinsley, who took the head-coaching job at WVU Tech, as the Class AAA Wildcats play host to AA Poca. Winfield begins its first season as an AAA school, playing host to county rival Hurricane.

In other games involving Kanawha Valley teams Friday, Riverside plays host to South Charleston as the Warriors hope to continue its resurgence under coach Ralph Hensley and St. Albans visits Ripley as the Red Dragons look to build on last year's AAA state championship game appearance.

Also, Chapmanville plays at Sissonville, a game involving two AA playoff teams from a year ago; Buffalo visits Gilbert, a rematch of the opening round of last year's Class A playoffs in which the Bison won 34-6; Scott plays host to Roane County as the Skyhawks prepare to replace Kennedy Award winner Jordan Roberts, and Herbert Hoover plays host to Ravenswood.

Perhaps no team had more bad luck last season than South Charleston.

After a 0-4 start, the Black Eagles posted a 5-1 record and just missed out on the AAA playoffs. Among those five defeats included a one-point loss to George Washington, the No. 1 team at the end of the regular season in AAA; a one-point loss to SA and a four-point loss to state champion Parkersburg.

Gone from SC is Deion Spurlock, who passed and rushed for more than 1,000 yards. But Senior Marcel Brown, who was expected to share time with Spurlock last season before he broke his arm a week before the season opener, returns and sophomore Tyler Harris is considered a top-notch athlete under center.

"We were very frustrated with our season last year,'' said SC coach John Messinger. "We felt like we were better. We learned some real valuable lessons from that.

"We're going to grow. At this point we're pretty confident in our quarterback. We've got some strong, senior leadership. I think if we can play four quarters of good, sound football we can stay with anybody on our schedule.''

Messinger said he has a good feeling about this year's group.

"This is the first feel-good football team I've experience in my eight years at South Charleston,'' he said.

"We've got a group of kids that are going to set a good example for the young kids. They're going to be good students [and] good kids in the school building. If we can do that we can be good football players.''

Reach Tommy R. Atkinson at 348-4811 or tatkin...@wvgazette.com.