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Week One of the 2024 high school football season sees some teams in our region go on the road, while others have to wait another 14 days to get started, due to some bizarre circumstances. 

We’ll start off with that part. We’ve reported before about Cumberland High’s decision to shut down their varsity football program for a year and build the program through its junior varsity. That junior varsity squad was set to take on William Campbell High on Wednesday afternoon. However, one day prior to the game, Cumberland officials were notified that the event had been canceled. Apparently, William Campbell had too many injured players to suit up for the game. 

There’s been no confirmation from the Virginia High School League as to what happened to the players. It’s unclear at this point if they were injured in high school football scrimmages over the past week or in practice. 

With that cancellation, Cumberland’s junior varsity won’t suit up for a game again until Thursday, Sept. 12, when they go on the road against Altavista. The next home game for the junior varsity is set for Thursday, Sept. 19 against Nelson County. 

High school football rebuilds in Farmville 

Speaking of travel, that’s what the Prince Edward Eagles will be doing Friday, as they go on the road down to Chatham. This is a rematch of what was one of Prince Edward’s more competitive games last season, as they fell short 44-30. In fact, it was a game Prince Edward led until the 4th quarter, when they gave up 22 points. Chatham is coming off a strong 7-4 rebuilding season, where they went undefeated at home. 

Changing the mentality, building a high school football team that focuses on pushing ahead, rather than playing in fear of coughing up a lead, that’s what Prince Edward Head Coach Melvin Mitchell said is one of his goals this season. 

“It’s about building a mindset, developing or encouraging the competitiveness,” Mitchell said. “One of the things is we do competition in practice. We’ve incorporated that. It could be tug of war, sprints, racing or relays.” 

Mitchell sees the mental aspect of the game as important as the physical, especially when you’re just getting started. As we’ve mentioned before, he joined the team late, taking over as the previous coach had to step aside due to health concerns. As a result, the Eagles haven’t had a full off-season to get his offensive and defensive schemes installed. And that’s ok. Mitchell isn’t looking for them to be perfect right off the bat. What he wants instead is that desire to win, that focus on getting better every day in practice. 

Buckingham heads over the county line 

Now while this is the first game of the season for the Buckingham County Knights, you can’t say the same thing about their opponent on Friday. Buckingham goes over the border to take on an Appomattox team that was hammered 45-0 last week by the Liberty Christian Bulldogs. Last season, the Raiders were one of the few teams that had success against Buckingham, beating the Knights Week One 23-6. 

As we said, that was one of the few times Buckingham struggled last year. In fact, the Knights improved in almost every way over 2022. During 2022, they were 8-3. In 2023, they finished 9-2. In 2022, they went 5-1 in the James River region. One year later, they went undefeated in the region. The team clinched both a regular season title and held the rank of #1 defense in the area for most of the year. 

And there’s the improvement made on the field, on both sides of the ball. Buckingham gave up a total of 99 points on the year. There are some teams that gave up more than that in one game. Dividing that over 11 games, the Knights gave up an average of 9 points, by far the best in the region. And that’s an improvement over the 2022 season, where they only coughed up an average of 11.9 per game. 

Now here’s where it gets scary for some opponents. The majority of last year’s squad were juniors and underclassmen, meaning the Knights seem primed to make another run into the playoffs this year.

High school football rebuilds at Fuqua

Last season was a trial by fire in several ways for the Fuqua Falcons. First off, they didn’t really get a full off-season with their new coach, as Tyler Cristo took over two months before practices started. More than that, they were switching to an entirely new concept, going from the traditional 11-man football to 8-man, which is very much a different game. It was a challenge for the team, which went 1-8 overall and 0-3 in the region. 

“I think they handled it the best way they could,” Cristo said. “The schedule was a little daunting, with some teams like Covenant, with bigger enrollments and just bigger athletes. We had a bumpy ride but we weathered the storm. We got better each and every game.” 

This is a young group suiting up for Fuqua, with just two seniors on the team. Cristo said the biggest thing he wants to do this season is change the mindset. A mindset that says the team is already the underdog before they even take the field. 

“I want them going into the game and thinking we have a chance,” Cristo said. “Not being defeated before they even walk out on the field. That’s the biggest thing with these kids. If they look down the schedule and say we don’t have a chance, we have to change that mindset.”

Fuqua starts their season on the road Friday, Aug. 30, as they travel to take on Quantico. Their first home game is set for Friday, Sept. 6, as they’ll play host to Greenbrier Christian Academy, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.

Randolph-Henry looks to break a tie

Let’s just call this what it is. This is a rubber match with the series deadlocked at two wins apiece between the Governors of Nelson County and the Randolph-Henry Statesmen.  Doubled up by Nelson 28-14 a year ago, Randolph-Henry struggled through a 1-9 mark. But when they prevailed by margins of 26-6 in 2021 and 19-6 in 2022, the squad was on the playoff bubble with 5-5 overall finishes.  This is a game that can be a tone setter for Ray Conner’s program, hoping to rebound in a big way.