Friday night lights are back in Chattooga County and northwest Georgia as the 2023 high school football season kicks off tonight.  Both of our local teams will be in action with one team at home and one on the road.

New head coach Roone Gable will make his official head coaching debut tonight as the Chattooga Indians will go on the road to Lafayette to take on the Ramblers.  The Indians are coming off a 2-8 season last year but excitement is high as the Indians take the field with their new head coach.  The Indians warmed up in a scrimmage last week against Ridgeland.  Chattooga will play tonight then have a bye week next week to get ready for their second straight road game against Temple in two weeks.  Chattooga will not play at home on their new artificial turf field until September 8th when they host Coahulla Creek.

Excitement in Trion is at a fever pitch after an exciting scrimmage last week against the defending 6-AAA region champion Adairsville Tigers.  The Bulldogs are coming off a 9-3 season last year where they advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.  The Bulldogs will open their season at home tonight against Gordon Lee in what will be the 89th meeting in the state’s oldest continuous rivalry.  Trion has played Gordon Lee every year since 1933.

Both Trion and Chattooga games will be video streamed live on the WZQZ Facebook page.  The Trion game will also be broadcast on 99.1 FM and AM 1180.  Barry Peppers will be filling in for Paul Cavin tonight and will be joined by James Baird on the call for the Chattooga Indians.  Ben Groce and Jeremy Burke will call the action for the Bulldogs.

WZQZ will be airing a replay of the famed 1974 game between Trion and Gordon Lee tonight beginning around 6:30pm on the WZQZ Facebook page.  Both games will start with the pregame show around 7 pm with kickoff to follow at 7:30 pm.