After a successful season under first year head coach Brad Rhodes, the young Wildcats are eager to get the season started Friday night against Ariton.

“We have a had a good week of practice, so far,” Rhodes said. “Ariton has a new coach and they didn’t play a spring game, so we don’t really know what they are going to try to do.”

Ariton currently holds a 5-12 advantage over the Wildcats in head-to-head contest, but the Wildcats won last year by a score of 30-13.

Rhodes said that one thing the Wildcats will have to improve on is the play of the offensive and defensive line.

“We have got to do a better job up front,” Rhodes said. “That is on both sides of the ball.”

Rhodes said that one key for the Wildcats this week will be to establish the run.

“The key for us will establishing the run,” Rhodes said. “We have to be able to run the football, and on the defensive side, we have to be able to stop the run. This is a non-region game for us, but it’s our first game and it’s important to us. We have been working on just getting ourselves better this week.”

The Wildcats a coming off a jamboree game against J.U. Blacksher. The varsity Wildcats played the first half, and left trailing 12-0. The junior varsity Wildcats came away with a 14-6 victory in their half of the game.

“It was a opportunity for us to get some guys some live playing time that have never experienced it before,” Rhodes said. “We did some good things, but we also made some mistakes. The mistakes we made are fixable, though. It gave us something to look at on film, and things to work on this week in practice.”

After the fall jamboree contest, the Wildcats have been eager to get back on the field.

“They came into practice this week with a higher level of intensity,” Rhodes said. “Even though we don’t know a lot about Ariton, we have prepared for a lot of different things that will help us down the road. The kids are just ready to get out there and prove what they can do. Ariton is a Class 2A school, and we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Rhodes said that Wildcats have experienced success at practice, and hopes that it will carry over to the field on Friday.

Florala and Ariton with kickoff in Ariton at 7 p.m.