Coach Seth Baxter of Southwestern Randolph will have his team at home this week to begin the football season. (Neal Robbins / Randolph Record)
Another season of high school football begins Friday night with Randolph County teams set for a variety of non-conference games.
In each case, these are rematches from last year’s openers. In those games, Randolph County teams went a combined 5-2.
Looking for more early success won’t come easy, though only three of the teams have road assignments.
All games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Here’s an overview of the matchups:
Randleman at Thomasville
This could be one of the premier matchups in the region for the opening week.
Randleman topped Thomasville 20-9 in last year’s opener in the first meeting between the teams in seven years.
Randleman posted a 10-2 record last year for its first 10-win season since 2019.
Thomasville will be under the direction of first-year coach Bradley George. He took over after Kevin Gillespie retired in late May, completing a four-season stint with the Bulldogs.
Thomasville, a Class 1A team, has gone 29-9 across the past three seasons, including 9-4 a year ago.
Randleman has won four of the past five matchups with the Bulldogs.
Western Guilford at Southwestern Randolph
Southwestern Randolph has had three consecutive winning seasons. Hoping to achieve more success, the early part of the season is bound to be crucial, particularly with three of the first four games at home.
The Cougars opened last season by winning 29-18 at Western Guilford, which went on to a 2-8 season.
This will be only the sixth meeting between the teams. They split four outcomes from 2013-16.
East Davidson at Providence Grove
Providence Grove could be at a crossroads after five consecutive winning seasons. The Patriots had a coaching change in early August.
Veteran assistant coach Mark Heilig has taken over after the departure of David Hayes, who coached the team for one season and left just a couple of days after the official start of practice this month.
The Patriots went 6-5 last year, a record that included a season-opening 24-7 victory at East Davidson. Providence Grove lost four of its final five games.
East Davidson ended up 4-7 last year.
Providence Grove leads the series 7-4, including five victories in a row. Friday night’s game will mark the 11th consecutive August (with the exception of 2020 when the pandemic nixed play until the following spring) that these teams meet.
Starmount at Trinity
Starmount won last year 43-30, spoiling the Bulldogs debut of coach Bear Bradley.
Trinity had a 5-6 season last year. The 30 points scored against Starmount marked the second-highest total of the season for the Bulldogs.
Trinity needs to bolster its defense after giving up more than 40 points in four games in 2023.
Starmount was 10-2 last year for its first double-digit win total since 2014.
West Davidson at Wheatmore
Wheatmore begins the season with a new coach as Jacob Sheffield has replaced Philip Yarbrough.
The Warriors thumped host West Davidson 33-7 last season on the way to a 2-8 season. Johnathan Kelly scored three touchdowns in that game and he’s back for his senior season.
West Davidson was winless last year and carries a 16-game losing streak into the season.
The teams have played regularly since 2009 (with the exception of the reconfigured 2020 season). The series is tied 7-7.
Eastern Randolph at Eastern Alamance
This is the fourth year in a row that these teams clash in a non-conference game.
Eastern Alamance, a Class 3A team, has won the past two meetings, including 35-15 last year in Ramseur. The Wildcats recovered from that result to win their next 12 games.
Eastern Randolph is 33-5 across the past three years, suffering its only regular-season losses to the Eagles.
Eastern Randolph’s Burton Cates is beginning his 40th year as a head coach, mostly with the Wildcats. He’s the active wins leader in the state with 367.
Eastern Alamance’s Mitch Mitchener will make his coaching debut. The Western Alamance alum was hired to replace John Kirby, who retired after 32-plus seasons in charge of the Eagles.
Senior running back Tyrek Samuel of Eastern Alamance has scored a total of eight touchdowns against the Wildcats in the past two seasons combined.
Asheboro at Albemarle
Asheboro is looking for a season-opening victory for the third time in four seasons. Last year, the Blue Comets won 24-22 at home against Albemarle to start the season.
The Class 3A team didn’t win another game. Albemarle, a Class 1A team, went on to a 6-6 record.
This is Calvin Brown’s second season as Asheboro’s coach. The Blue Comets have finished with one victory in each of the past three seasons.
For Albemarle, this is the first of three meetings against teams from Randolph County across the first five weeks of the season.
