THOMASVILLE — The potential for distractions is there this week for the Brookwood football team. It’s coming off its fall break at school, which was also its off week. Combined that with homecoming this week and the potential is there for distractions for the Brookwood football team.

“It’s definitely something you always think about, making sure the guys don’t have dead legs on Friday,” Brookwood coach Shane Boggs said. “Our homecoming week has been shortened a little bit, we’ve condensed it. There’s no activities on Monday. There’s no evening stuff on Thursday. That should minimize all that. In the end, usually you’re a product of how you practice and we’ve had two good practices so far (on Monday and Tuesday).”

Boggs liked the timing of last week’s open week. His team is 3-2 with two wins in a row. But with half the season still yet to be played, the Warriors needed a week to regroup, especially with region play starting next week.

“I feel like it always helps you get a little bit healthier and then go back to do some fundamental work during that open week,” he said. “You can always expand your playbook a little bit as well. I think we’ve taken advantage of it. But it sure is good to get back into game week.”

Heritage should be quite the challenge for Brookwood. It’s 4-1 and has recorded shutouts over Flint River Academy, Creekside Christian Academy and Deerfield-Windsor. 

“It’s a great barometer in that they had just beaten Southland 22-6 and really had a great chance to beat Valwood,” Boggs said. “Heritage was a final four team last year and returned some great players and added some great players. It’ll be a great gauge of where we are, relative to quality playoff teams.”

Kickoff for Friday night’s game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.