Football doesn’t officially start until next Friday, but for anyone who can’t wait that long, two county schools will be playing in pre-season games this week.

Phil Campbell will host Hamilton Friday, and Red Bay will travel to Curry.

Phil Campbell head coach Kevin Barnwell said he wants to use the scrimmages against the Aggies to assess where his team is before officially kicking off the season.

“We lost a lot of senior starters from last year,” said Barnwell. “A scrimmage like this gives us the opportunity to see where we are and what we have to work on. We also get to see who is going to step up and lead this team.”

Phil Campbell will kick off at 5 p.m. with a junior high scrimmage before moving to the varsity scrimmage later in the evening.

Red Bay’s Heath Childers will kick off his Tiger coaching career at Curry against the Yellow Jackets. Like Phil Campbell, Red Bay lost several senior starters. The Tigers had more than a dozen senior starters playing this past year, many on offense and defense.

“I’m excited, and the kids are excited,” said Childers. “We want our guys to play hard-nosed and tough. We want to see them get after it and see some guys show leadership.”

Red Bay will kick off at 7 p.m. at Curry Friday night.