Football season officially begins Friday night for mostMississippi Private School Association football teams in the state.Locally, the Brookhaven Academy Cougars kick off their seasonhosting the Copiah Academy Colonels from Gallman.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on Cougar Field.

Also seeing action is Union Academy of Georgetown. The Saintstravel to Rebul Academy in Learned for District 6-A action. Inanother game tonight, Centreville Academy hosts Adams CountyChristian School.

Parklane has an open date and begins its season Friday, Aug. 26, atBowling Green.

“It’s a fun game,” said Brookhaven Academy head football coach RayIshee, describing the Brookhaven-Copiah rivalry. “The kids knoweach other. It should be a pretty good game.

“Both teams are coming off good years. We are looking to get off toa good start.”

Directing the Brookhaven offense in junior quarterback PriceSessums (5-9, 155). Working at tight end is senior Chip Wells (6-0,190). The wide outs are junior T-Boy Lynch (5-10, 160), seniorSteven Covington (5-10, 190) and sophomore Corey Dickerson (6-1,195).

“Price makes so much happen,” said Copiah Academy head footballcoach Mitch Mitchell after watching Brookhaven in last Friday’sjamboree at Adams County Christian School. “Sessums is a threat torun.”

Making up the Cougar offensive line are senior Chad Caldwell (6-3,235) at right tackle, senior Wesley Taylor (6-0, 240) at rightguard, junior Sawyer Smith (6-1, 240) at center, sophomore PatrickWallace (6-3, 250) at left guard and junior Cory Bailey (6-5, 250)at left tackle.

Starting on the Brookhaven defensive line are junior Alan Case(6-1, 240), junior Bradley Allred (5-11, 215), senior Bo Heathman(6-0, 230) and junior Russ Thames (6-1, 190). The insidelinebackers are freshman Kolby Byrd (5-11, 215) and Taylor. SeniorRyan Vanderslice (5-5, 170), junior Keith Franklin (5-9, 150),Covington, Lynch and Dickerson are the defensive secondary.

Senior defensive back Paul Davis (6-3, 190) sustained a mildconcussion in last week’s jamboree and will sit out the next twogames.

“BA looked real good,” explained Mitchell. “They have a lot ofathletes on the field. The Cougars are tough to defense. Theycreate a lot of matchup problems.”

Mitchell was also impressed with the Cougar defense. “The BAdefense ran a four front. They have two big inside linebackers.They looked real good.”

Mitchell said his Colonels were ready for the season to start. “Weare doing a lot of work with our offensive linemen. We played realgood on the defensive side.”

Starting in the offensive backfield for the Colonels are juniorBennett Wilson (5-8, 145) at quarterback, junior Jake Guess (6-3,199) at fullback and senior David Brunt (6-1, 192) at tailback. Thereceiving corps includes sophomore Jed Stevens (5-10, 170) andsenior Brock Campbell (6-1, 140).

“Wilson did a good job towards the end of last year,” explainedIshee. “Bennett throws and runs the football well. He can do somethings that can hurt you.”

The Colonel offensive line is made up of senior Will Ervin (6-1,180) at tight end, senior Ben Berch (5-9, 192) at center, seniorDanny Pyles (6-1, 205) and junior Jon Alan Different (6-0, 216) atguard, junior Kent Miller (6-1, 190) and sophomore Matthew Wright(5-11, 184) at tackle.

Working on the Copiah defensive line are Berch and Different attackle, and Ervin and Miller at end. Guess and sophomore BenStevens (5-9, 150) will start at outside linebacker. Insidelinebackers include senior Scott Akin (5-9, 185) and Pyles.Cornerbacks are senior Jed Stevens (5-10, 170) and senior ClintDenson (5-11, 170). Brunt will play safety.

“Copiah is very aggressive,” said Ishee who watched the Colonels ina preseason jamboree last Thursday. “The Colonels fly to thefootball. I was really impressed with their team speed. Their totalathleticism was real good. They don’t have any non athletes.

“They can run to the football,” said Ishee. “They can get the jobdone.”

Ishee said he was hoping for a big turnout, since the local publicschools don’t’ start until next Friday night.

“It’s going to be the first game of the area,” added Ishee. “It isgoing to be a show. It is going to be a fun time.”