By Ross Johnson

Sports Writer

It’s not quite game week, but it’s close enough for three football teams in Troup County.

LaGrange, Troup and Callaway will face opponents later this week in preseason match-ups, just a week before the their respective opening nights.

Lafayette Christian School, meanwhile, officially opens its season Friday against Golden Acres.

The game will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Whitesville Road stadium.

LaGrange will head to College Park Thursday to face Westlake High in a scrimmage at 7 p.m.

With the Grangers to face Newnan High the following week, head coach Steve Pardue hopes to see his team work out the kinks against the Lions before playing Newnan, a Class AAAAA power.

With many newcomers inheriting several positions, most notably on defense, Pardue and his coaches want the players to have as much game experience as possible.

“It’s a little different (from a normal game week routine),” said Pardue, who led LaGrange to a berth in the Class AAA semifinals last year. “We’ll go over a few things on tape, but we work with the Westlake coaches and we know what each other will be doing. It’s an opportunity to get on the field.”

At Troup, head coach Bubba Jeter and the Tigers will head to Montgomery, Ala., to face Robert E. Lee High on Thursday.

Robert E. Lee is coached by former Georgia running back Larry Ware.

“It’ll be pretty generic,” Jeter said of the game plan. “(Ware) told me what they’ll be running on offense and defense, and I did the same. It’s just to be able to get on the field and get some game experience.”

Callaway will be playing its annual scrimmage against Greenville on Friday to keep alive the tradition-rich Hogansville-Greenville rivalry.

Game time is 7 p.m.

Although the Cavaliers won decisively in last season’s match-up, head coach Pete Wiggins will be expecting a battle between the two squads.

“(Greenville) is a really well-coached team, and we know it’ll be a tough game for us,” Wiggins said. “It’s a huge game for us and it’ll be a great atmosphere.”

This is the third straight year in which the rivalry will be renewed, but Callaway won’t be getting too deep into preparation for the scrimmage.

The Cavaliers will just execute what they’ve been practicing all along.

“We’ll be running what we’ll do in the season on offense and defense,” Wiggins said. “We’re going to do what we do.”

After last year’s inaugural season, Lafayette Christian will take on Golden Acres in both teams’ opening game Friday.

The eight-man football teams played twice last season and split the games.