With the start of the regular season less than three days away, the Baldwin Braves spent Tuesday afternoon on the practice field amidst the rain. However a lightning strike in the distance forced the coaches to end practice and move the team indoors to watch film on this week’s opponent; Glenn Hills.

While the game is important as the season opener, it is especially important to head coach Jesse Hicks who graduated from Glenn Hills high school.

“It’s an extra added thing personally for me to want to win against my high school team,” said Hicks.

“I’ve got a lot of love for those guys. A lot of those guys coached me. I still love them as brothers. But this is football. I’ll love them after the game. For a few hours I want to beat their head in.”

After looking over game film from last Friday’s 13-0 win in a scrimmage against Wilkinson County, the team spent Monday correcting some mistakes and will spend the rest of the week preparing for the Spartans.

“Mondays you want to nail down what you want the guys to do. But Tuesdays and Wednesdays should always be your better days. Thursdays are the days to fine tune, tighten down your loose bolts and things.”

While the weather has complicated things for the team, players and coaches alike are trying to work around it.

“We know it’s raining so there‘s no reason to slip and fall. You know what you have to do to make tackles. So there’s no reason for the game to run different,” said senior safety Cortney Ingram.

With junior quarterback Calvin Harris still recovering from a knee scope procedure, freshman quarterback Roshaun Milline has officially been named the team’s starter for week one.

“I want to complete more passes, that’s my main goal.

The scrimmage did help, but I need to read defenses a little bit better,” said Milline who also started the scrimmage.

Fortunately for Milline and the rest of the Braves offense having senior Jerrico Ford at tailback will be a big help to the young signal caller.

“Milline is a good quarterback. You really don’t have to tell him much. He’s pays a lot of attention so he knows what's going on, but every now and then you do have to help him,” said Ford who will return punts, kickoffs and maybe even do some punting for the team if needed.

However, Ford doesn’t expect to get into a game as the punter this season.

“I probably won’t because our offense is going to drive the ball every time.”