After battling through a long, hot summer, Ardmore coach P.J. Wright said his players are more than ready to get the 2019 season started.

The Tigers will travel to play West Morgan Friday night in their opening game of the season, and Wright said it is a welcome relief from the grueling practices the team has endured in the hot summer weather.

“Every year we talk about it being the hottest summer, but I think this one has been,” Wright said. “It was a long and hot training camp, so we are all excited to get to game week and are ready to go on Friday.”

Wright said the team had to adjust its practices a little bit to deal with the heat, such as having the beginning of practice in the gymnasium before moving outside, but it didn’t affect the team too much.

“We didn’t have to move practice times, but we did some things at the indoor facility,” Wright said. “We’d go inside once the sun started to go down and it started to cool off. We were also smart with everything we did, such as taking care of the kids and making sure they stayed well-hydrated.”

It will be a first game of some unknowns, as Ardmore has to replace 21 seniors from last year’s team, including starting quarterback Noah Barnett. After a quarterback competition, Wright said the starter will be junior Owen Doss. However, senior John McGuire will also get some time at quarterback.

“We like the skill set that Owen is bringing right now,” Wright said. “He can do a lot of things we want to do offensively to move the football. John is going to play some linebacker, but he’ll get a fair share of snaps at quarterback.”

Ardmore opened last season by hosting West Morgan, and defeated the Rebels 52-39. West Morgan struggled to a 1-9 season last year while Ardmore finished the 2018 season with a 4-6 mark. Wright said while he hopes this season gets off to just as good of a start as last season did, it is not the end of the world if the Tigers don’t get off to a great start, seeing as this is not a region game.

“We obviously want to win, and are going to do everything we can to win, but I’ve got to be aware that if something happens we don’t anticipate, or heaven forbid we lose, we don’t just tank it,” Wright said. “We’ve still got another nine games to play. It’s important to get off on the right foot, but more important is how much we grow between week one and week two. More so than winning a game, we want to see improvement. We’ll make changes as we see fit after week one.”

Schools have the option of playing a regular season game this week and having an open week during the season or playing a jamboree game this week and playing 10 straight weeks of regular-season games. Wright said having an open week during the season is crucial for his team.

“It plays better for us with our lack of depth,” Wright said. “We need that week off where we’re not banging on each other and not preparing to play a game. We want that week five as a bye week, because we need time to heal. It’s a long season and we’ll need that break in the middle.”