The Southside Panthers are ready for football season to get started as they spent the end of the school day watching the football team play against each other in a scrimmage Friday.

Students filled the seats in the home stands and left room for the Southside marching band and dance team to perform. The scrimmage nearly imitated a game environment, and that is what head football coach Daniel Flowers wanted to see.

“It was an awesome atmosphere,” Flowers said. “The kids from the elementary school and the high school showed up. I thought there was going to be 50, maybe 60 kids, but I think we had at least 275 kids there to watch the game. We had the band going, and it just felt like football season again.”

The Panthers were going full speed during the scrimmage, and only pulled up on Flowers’ quick whistle. The last thing he wants is an otherwise preventable injury a week before game one.

“Everybody enjoyed it. The offense came out with a big start, and the defense came back to win,” Flowers said. “Overall it was a good day, and guys were competing with each other.”

The students, players and coaches have been looking forward to the start of the season. School just opened earlier this week, and the first game of the season for the Panthers is on Friday, Aug. 24 at Northview High School.

“I told my coaches I don’t want to work out any kinks in the first game,” Flowers said. “I want to go into the first game with the kinks already worked out. I feel like this game helped us prepare for next week.”

The Panthers then return home the following week to play county rival Selma High.

The two schools aren’t in the same classification, but the rivalry is strong between the schools which are only 11 miles apart.

Flowers expects the stands and the parking lot to be full for the early season cross-county matchup.