By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

All three Pearl River County prep football teams will compete in spring games this week.

Picayune, Pearl River Central and Poplarville will all wrap up spring training drills over the next few days.

First up will be Pearl River Central, which will also be the only local team to play at home for the annual spring game.

The Blue Devils will host East Central Thursday night in a scrimmage with the junior varsity taking the field at 6 and then the varsity at 7. The varsity teams will compete in a regulation type of game without kicking.

PRC began practice a few weeks back and then took one week off before wrapping up drills.

“I don’t think it hurt us,” PRC head coach Jeremy Weir, entering his fourth season at the helm of the Blue Devils, said. “We have been just working hard and trying to get ready for our off season workouts.”

On Friday, both Picayune and Poplarville will join the action and both the Maroon Tide and Hornets will hit the road.

Picayune is headed to D’Iberville and will square off with the defending Class 4A South State champion Warriors.

Junior varsity action will kick off at 5:30, and then the varsity teams will meet in a regulation type game beginning around 6:30.

“I think everything has gone really well so far,” veteran Picayune head coach Dodd Lee said, of the spring action. “We’re not very big, but we’ve got a few football players out there that are doing pretty well.”

Also on Friday, second year Poplarville head coach Chris Teal will take his troops to Tylertown. The Hornets will face the host Chiefs at 5:30 and then take on Dexter at 6:30. Both sessions will be a regulation half of action. The Hornets JV will follow at 7:30 for one session.

Although Teal is entering his second season at the helm of the Hornets, this will mark the first time he directs his team through a spring game after taking the helm late last spring. “We’ve had a good two weeks,” Teal said. “Our winter workouts went well and it has carried over to the spring on the field.”

Both Picayune and PRC will be moving up from Class 4A to Class 5A this coming season, while Poplarville will remain in Class 4A.