During team meetings, Vicksburg High coach Marcus Rogers likes to scribble messages for his team on a white board in the locker room.

The notes are usually reminders about practice activities, or about their assignments for that week’s game.

This week, the board was intentionally left blank.

“The board was clean. It’s a new slate,” Rogers said. “Everything that happened the last four weeks, nobody will remember any of it if we go on a roll the next seven weeks. Our goals are still intact.”

The Gators went 2-2 in their first four games as they struggled with some uneven play. The new season — the real season — begins Friday night at North Jackson Field in the Region 2-5A opener against Lanier.

Of the eight teams in the region, only undefeated Germantown (4-0) made it through non-region play with a winning record. Callaway and Pearl, who combined for 25 wins last season, have won just three games between them so far this year. Another 2013 playoff team, Ridgeland, is off to a 1-3 start.

Rogers said that means everyone has a shot to rise up and claim the region championship, including his Gators.

“This district is wide open. It’s not like last year when Callaway just dismantled everybody,” Rogers said, referring to the 2013 Callaway squad that finished 14-1. “It’s there for the taking, and I think the kids realize that, too.”

Something else the Gators have realized, Rogers said, is that they’re not that far away from being a championship team. In all of their games so far, most of their problems have been self-inflicted wounds.

Turnovers, especially, have hurt the offense. Rogers said he and his coaching staff used the bye week to simplify the offense some and work on the issues, and believes it’s paid off.

“We made adjustments as coaches, from forcing turnovers on ourselves to doing more traditional things to limit that. We’ll go under center more,” said Rogers, who was using mostly shotgun formations on offense in the first four games. “We’re working on execution. I think we’ll look better this week.”

Vicksburg plays at Germantown next week, but first must get past a Lanier squad that has struggled against the Gators — and everyone else — over the years.

Lanier hasn’t had a winning record since 2003 — the last time it won more than six games in a season was in 1987 — and endured a 38-game losing streak that spanned parts of four seasons from 2010-14.

Vicksburg did its part to keep the streak going by beating Lanier 68-16 last season at Memorial Stadium.

The Bulldogs finally ended the skid, however, by beating Amanda Elzy on Sept. 5. They followed that up with a 52-34 win over Wingfield last week and are 2-3 coming into Friday’s game.

Rogers said that while Lanier has struggled, it’s a team that’s capable of giving the Gators some trouble if they let it.

“They’re fighting. We went and watched them play Jim Hill, and I watched their mannerisms in warm ups. They’ve got good body language,” Rogers said. “They’re not world beaters, but if you let them hang around they’ll start believing. We can’t let them do that.”

On the radio

Friday, 7 p.m., 1490 AM

Vicksburg at Lanier