TIFTON — High school football is inching its way closer.

At Tiftarea Academy, head coach Erik Soliday said he had about 35 players participating in summer practices.

The regular season starts for the Panthers Aug. 17. As usual, 10 games make up the schedule and Tiftarea will have an equal number of home and road contests.

The Panthers are back in the Georgia Independent School Association’s Region 3-AAA and have the same region opponents as last year. The rest of the slate, though, will have four newcomers.

Three new opponents are because of a rule instituted by the league this season. The GISA has 37 football teams, which is actually up from 35 last season. However, the GISA has brought back Class A for the first time since the 2013 season and six of the league’s teams will play for that championship.

For the 2018-19 season, Class AAA has 19 schools. That is down from 21 last year and 25 in 2016. Trinity Christian (Sharpsburg) moved to the Georgia High School Association and Dominion Christian, Edmund Buck Academy and Gatewood went down to Class AA. The GISA did pick up two schools, Creekside Christian and Notre Dame Academy and they will play AAA schedules.

With fewer schools than in previous years, the GISA has elected to shake up the state playoffs. Last season, 16 teams were in the AAA playoffs. That has changed to 12 teams. On its 2016-18 list of regions per sport, the GISA described the new playoff system as, “[T]he top 2 [t]eams in each Region plus the next 2 best records in each crossover pool.”

The crossover pool is also new this season. Members of Region 3-AAA, the Panthers will play four schools in Region 1-AAA as part of the regular season schedule — Creekside Christian, Loganville Christian, Notre Dame and Heritage (Newnan).

Creekside, a team Tiftarea defeated 28-16 a year ago, opens up the regular season in Chula Aug. 17. Creekside went 11-3 a year ago and fell to Community Christian in the GICAA title game, 20-14. Even with their loss to Tiftarea factored in, Creekside won games by an average score of 39.8-10.4.

On Aug. 24, the Panthers go to Terrell Academy in Dawson for their first road game of the year. Terrell leads the all-time series, 15-12, but Tiftarea has won the last five, including a 38-22 victory in 2017. The Eagles went 6-6 in 2017 and lost in the Class AA quarterfinals.

Following a week off, the Panthers play their first ever GHSA team: Lanier County. Likewise, this is the first GISA opponent for the Bulldogs, who have gone 1-9 in four straight seasons. Lanier is coming to the Panther Pit Sept. 7.

After another off-week, Tiftarea travels to Loganville Christian Sept. 21. This will be the first meeting between the two. The Lions were 3-7 in 2017 and were eliminated from the first round of the state tournament by Gatewood. Loganville is a young program, having permanently established the sport in 2011. They were 10-1 in 2015.

On Sept. 28, the Panthers host Valwood for their first region game. Tiftarea leads the all-time series against the defending AAA state champions, 19-14, but lost last year, 42-10. Valwood won the title in 2017 by defeating Trinity Christian (Sharpsburg), 14-9. The title was their sixth overall and third since 2012.

Notre Dame Academy will be the next opponent for Tiftarea, with the Irish coming to town Oct. 5. Notre Dame, located in Duluth, is playing its first varsity season. Though new, the coaching staff has attracted one prominent name, Ken Oxendine, a former Atlanta Falcons running back. When they arrive at Tiftarea, the Irish will have already faced Valwood, Deerfield-Windsor, Brookwood and Southland Academy.

Tiftarea’s fourth and final crossover game will be Oct. 12 at Heritage of Newnan. The schools have not faced off before. Heritage was 7-4 in 2017, falling to Frederica in the quarterfinals. Football dates back to 2006 at Heritage and they made the finals in 2012.

The Panthers’ last three regular season games will all be region.

Tiftarea is at Brookwood Oct. 19. They defeated the Warriors 34-26 in 2017, breaking a three-game losing skid. Brookwood finished 4-5 a year and missed state for the first time since 2010. The Warriors lead the all-time series, 16-15.

Oct. 26, the Panthers go to Deerfield-Windsor. Tiftarea has had little luck in the series and fell 35-20 a year ago. They last defeated the Knights in 1998. Deerfield went 7-5 last year and was defeated by Gatewood in the quarterfinals.

The season ends Nov. 2 with a home game against Southland. The Raiders won 24-0 a season ago and have a 10-3 edge in the series. Southland was 10-2 in 2017, losing in the quarterfinals to Trinity Christian. Their only other loss was to Deerfield-Windsor.