Warren Central was fairly quiet on Thursday.

A dozen or so people played soccer on a field bordering Highway 27. A few more walked the track in Viking Stadium. Behind the football fieldhouse, about a third of WC’s football team ran passing drills and sprints.

It’s a far cry from what the scene will be like two months from now. On Aug. 30, cars and trucks of every sort will cover the soccer field. Fans will fill the stands and some will even be on the track. And the football team won’t be on the practice field, but rather the game field when it takes on mighty South Panola in the Red Carpet Bowl.

Today marks two months until the RCB, perhaps the biggest in its 45-year history. The opponents – South Panola and Clarksdale, which will play Vicksburg High on Aug. 31 – are the best they’ve been in years, and the atmosphere will be electric.

&#8220A rush,” Warren Central linebacker Bennie Peoples said when asked how he imagined that scene.

It’ll also be a challenge for the Vikings.

South Panola lost a host of players and its coach from last year’s Class 5A championship team, but still will bring a 60-game winning streak into Viking Stadium. And three of its returning players, running back Darius Barksdale, Bud Barksdale and offensive lineman Quin Sanford, committed to play at Ole Miss earlier this week.

It’ll take everything the Vikings have to take down Panola, and they’re doing their best to prepare for the task. A number of WC players scouted the Tigers at a spring scrimmage in Clinton. They’ve already been watching game film, and attendance at the summer workouts is up from previous years.

That proves the Vikings are welcoming the challenge, senior receiver Ben Wau Caples said.

&#8220More people are showing up and working hard. They’re showing up twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and getting their endurance up,” Caples said. &#8220I honestly think most of it’s from having South Panola on the schedule.”

WC head coach Curtis Brewer agreed. He said his players have talked about the season opener a little more than usual, and he has noticed a little extra pep in their step during workouts.

&#8220They talk about it more. Those that are involved in it know they’ve got to be ready. As coaches, you don’t have to stand in the weight room and say they’re going to play a tough team. They know,” Brewer said.

WC has had workouts twice a day, three days a week for the last month. It’ll take next week off for the Fourth of July holiday, then come back July 9 and resume the run-up to preseason practice the first week of August.

When the Vikings return to the practice field, they’ll also pick up the intensity, Peoples said.

&#8220We need to work a little more, but we’re going to be ready for them when they come,” he said. &#8220We know it’s going to be hard. But we’re still going to work hard because we’re trying to win state this year.”