All the waiting, preparation and anticipation comes to an end Friday when Union Pines hosts the Red Springs Red Devils in its football season opener at Woodrow Wilhoit Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

Viking head coach Ryan Riggan made it clear that coaches have to really work to keep players excited and motivated during the all-important span of January through July. However, he was quick to agree that the regular season is “where it’s at.”

“The excitement that builds through the end of summer and into the fall is incredible,” he said. “There really is nothing like football season. Our guys are very excited and prepared. We’ve had a great week of practice, everything’s been very crisp, and they seem to be ready to go.

“I am ready to put our guys out there on the field and see the things we’ve worked on all winter, spring and summer.”

After missing the postseason last year with an overall record of 4-7, this season the Viking team goal is a playoff berth.

“We want to get off to a great start, and the guys have put in a lot of work to try and see that it happens,” said Riggan.

The Red Devils, a 1A team out of the 1A/2A Three Rivers Conference, were 1-10 last season. While Red Springs fell 34-20 to Union Pines in the season opener a year ago, Riggan and the Vikes will not be taking anything for granted in tonight’s tilt.

“Defensively, they will be in a 5-3 look,” said Riggan. “Red Springs gets a lot of guys to the line of scrimmage and really tries to take away the run.

Red Springs has an option style offense, which, according to Riggan, is similar to the one Georgia Tech runs on Saturdays.

“Anytime you face a team that runs the option, if you don’t play sound defense, they have a chance to break a long run on every snap,” said Riggan. “So we have to be fundamentally sound throughout the game to ensure that doesn’t happen. They have some explosive players in the backfield, including their starting quarterback and a bruising fullback, which means we must play responsible on defense to get things done.”

The generally accepted rule is defenses are ahead of offenses early in the high school football season. With that in mind, Riggan feels one area of focus for Union Pines has to be ball security.

“Ball security is always a concern,” said Riggan. “It’s something we work on every day and have been stressing even more this week. We had a couple of times when the ball was on the ground in our scrimmages, so we really want to put it away.”

Riggan also feels special teams play will be a key aspect during tonight’s tilt

“Our special teams play could prove to be a big helper for us this week,” he said. “We stress special teams every practice, working on several live run-throughs. If we play our assignments on special teams, I feel we could gain an advantage there.”

Contact F.W. Manning II at (910) 639-5481 or at frankwm2@gmail.com