The 2018 football season unofficially kicks off Thursday with the team’s spring game on the practice field starting at 5:30 p.m.

“I think the spring game will really give everybody the chance to test themselves,” sophomore Reed Carlisle said. “I’m expecting to go out there and have everybody to have fun hitting each other because we haven’t gotten to do a ton of that. The biggest thing, it’s competition. We are going to have a lot of that during the season; It’s good to get used to it.”

After practicing at 6:20 a.m. every morning for the past three weeks, Thursday’s spring game will give the team a feel for the 2018 season.

“It’s kind of a practice and a game,” junior Josh Burtch said. “It’s really for us as teammates and coaches to see who’s who on the team and where they think the kids should be at.”

With the option of an extra week of practice during summer or spring football, coaches see spring ball as the best choice.

“It gets them learning and thinking about it during the summer,” assistant football coach Justin Koons said. “So it’s in their head of what we’re going to do especially with the system that we are doing.”