McEachern ready to pick up where it left off last season

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. - The McEachern Indians start 2020 with the same opponent they ended 2019 with: North Gwinnett.

That rematch will be played at North Gwinnett — as long as Week 1 isn't pushed back again — on Sept. 3 at 8:30 p.m.

McEachern head coach Franklin Stephens is in his second year at the helm at the perennial powerhouse, but this year, amid so much uncertainty, he does worry about Week 1 on Sept. 3.

"The thing that I worry about is that first game and the jitters," Stephens told FOX 5 Sports. "We've got some guys that have never been up under the lights before, and obviously now they're going into a game without a scrimmage to work through those jitters. I worry about penalties because you have not been through a scrimmage to work through those types of things. So there's a lot of concerns about going into that first game."

While he expressed concern about the lack of reps for his players after no spring ball, Stephens said at the end of the day, every team is dealing with the same thing.

"A lot of people are behind. I think we're all equal," he said. "We've been governed by the same rules and regulations, so if you've been adhering to that, we're on equal footing."

Stephens also said that concern comes from the fact that the Indians will be young in some spots. That being said, the expectation in Powder Springs is for the Indians to defend their region crown in 2020.

"We had a pretty good year last year. Like a lot of schools, we would've like to have won (our last game), but we fell short on that part," he said. "But we learned from it. Up until COVID hit and we shut down, I thought our guys were heading in the right direction working their butts off."