Every year, it seems, high school football season starts earlier and earlier. That’s just fine by Porter’s Chapel Academy coach Blake Purvis.

PCA is among 38 teams that will play during the MAIS’ “Week Zero” on Aug. 16, as it hosts River Oaks. The rest of the association plays their openers on Aug. 23.

By playing a week early, the Week Zero teams are put on an accelerated timetable during their preseason preparations. Purvis, who is doing it for the fourth time in the past six years with PCA, said he’s found it to be an advantage early in the season when most opponents haven’t played that week.

PCA routed River Oaks 66-38 in the Week Zero game last season to kick off a 12-game winning streak that led all the way to the MAIS Class 2A semifinals.

“I think we saw it last year around Week 2 and 3. We had a full game under our belt. We had two good weeks of film to prepare and make adjustments and fix things,” Purvis said. “I think it gives you a little bit of an edge early on when you’re playing some of these guys who might be in their first or second game and you’re a game or two ahead of them.”

The early game, of course, means earlier checkpoints in the preseason as well. PCA will see its first live action this Thursday, when it joins fellow Week Zero participants Tallulah Academy and Briarfield Academy in a three-way scrimmage.

The games begin at 6 p.m. at Tallulah Academy.

Tallulah plays on Aug. 16 at Tensas Academy, while Briarfield is at Franklin Academy.
Purvis said the format for the scrimmages will be largely situational, rather than structured with a clock or a set number of plays per series..

“We’ve said we’re going to go and do what anybody wants to do. If somebody wants to see something specific, somebody else will get out there with them and do it,” Purvis said. “We all just want some good, meaningful reps to look at our guys before we roll into Week Zero.”

Tallulah Academy coach Bart Wood also said the scrimmage would be selected on the fly when the teams arrive Thursday.

“We won’t even have any referees here. If the coaches want to run 20 plays, we’ll run 20 plays. If they want to run five plays, we’ll run five. Whatever anybody wants to do,” he said.

Most MAIS teams will play a scrimmage this week, followed by a jamboree on Aug. 16. St. Aloysius will host several teams for a jamboree Friday at 7 p.m. at Farrell Stadium/Balzli Field.

Jamborees often include a number of teams playing with a running clock to squeeze in as many games as possible. Scrimmages are typically a set number of plays in a series for each team — most often 10 — which allows them to get work on offense and defense.

Although it means one less preseason look at his team, Purvis said he prefers the scrimmage format that gives coaches the ability to better control the action.

“I didn’t love the scrimmage one week, jamboree the next,” Purvis said. “One year, we were in a 20-minute running clock in the jamboree and played offense the entire 20 minutes. We were heavy run and plugging away three and four yards at a time, and we didn’t get any defensive snaps. It was good for our offense, but defensively it was a waste of a week.”

The goals of this scrimmage, Purvis said, are twofold — get game film to make adjustments from, and make sure everybody is in one piece for the opener.

“Same point of emphasis as every week — stay healthy,” Purvis said. “Of course, we want meaningful reps. We want as many guys as we can to get as many reps as we can, so we can evaluate more on film. It’s hard to practice in situations other than on air. Getting guys as many guys meaningful reps, where we can coach it and clean up as much as we can going into Week Zero is important.”