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By Marc Pruitt
For the Clemmons Courier

Fans wanting to get a sneak peak of the West Forsyth football team before the season opener are in luck.

The Titans will host nine other teams in the second Kickoff Classic on Aug. 16, one week before the start of the regular season for all football teams across the state.

All games will be played at Jerry Peoples Stadium and will feature a great mix of area teams and some traditional state powers, including two teams — East Forsyth (4-A) and Matthews Weddington (3-AA) — that won state championships last season.

Coach Adrian Snow and the Titans have been hard at work on and off the field since offseason workouts began in January. Practice officially started on Aug. 1, and West had its first scrimmage last Saturday against Northwest Guilford.

“There will be a lot of talent in that stadium and we’ve got two defending state champions that will be here,” Snow said. “We’re excited about it. The kids are excited about it, and we feel like we’ve got some really good matchups.”

The event was held at BB&T Stadium, Wake Forest’s home field, last year, but was moved to West this year because of some logistic complications with the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament, which will be going on the same night.

The first game will kickoff at 5 p.m. and will feature Oak Grove and Randleman. At 6 p.m., West Stokes will take on Davie County. East Forsyth will face Charlotte Mallard Creek at 7 p.m., with West slated to take on Weddington at 8 p.m. Southwest Guilford and Lexington will square off in the final game of the night at 9 p.m. Admission for the event will be $8.

“It’s about full-game situations where you can run your punt team on and get them off, kickoff team on and off,” Snow said. “Things we haven’t really had a chance to do yet. All those things are big in seeing how we can handle the situations of a game, so when the next Friday night when you play (Greensboro) Dudley (in the season opener), hopefully you’ve been able to work a lot of the kinks out.”

West is coming off an 8-4 record last season, which included a loss in the first round of the NCHSAA 4-AA playoffs to Central Piedmont rival Reagan.

The Titans return plenty of experience on offense and defense from last year’s team, which gives Snow plenty of reasons for optimism.

He came away encouraged after the team’s scrimmage against Northwest Guilford on Aug. 10 but acknowledged there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“We’ve got things we can work on, things we can do to get better,” Snow said. “It wasn’t a bad first day to be honest, but I don’t think you can really tell too much until you go and watch the tape. At the end of the day, it’s all about improvement. It was the first step in the journey and hopefully we can get better between now and (the scrimmage).”

Snow said he knows that his team is ready to hit the field.

“Our kids worked really hard in the offseason to get to this point and they’ll continue to work hard,” Snow said. “They’ve gotten bigger, stronger, faster. We just need to continue to gel as a group. We’ve got some pieces. Now it’s just a matter of putting them all in the right spots.”