by: Jordan Keifer

SANFORD – As the seconds count down to the first game of the football season, anticipation is building throughout the county, and in the locker room. The Lee County High School varsity football team kicks off its season Friday night against Northern Durham. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30.

Junior Jack Martin started under center for the JV squad as a sophomore, but moves up to starting on Friday nights this fall. He is ready for the challenge.

“I’m excited, no nerves,” Martin said. “I’m confident. I think we’re going to be really good. We’ve got a lot of guys… I think it’s going to be good.”

The team has been practicing a lot since the beginning of this summer, for around two hours daily, and working to become a better group of players and sportsmen, leaving no room for doubt. Preseason camp opened on July 31.

After a second-round exit last season, the senior class is ready to get back into the game, and preparing themselves for what they call the “Revenge Tour”.

Head coach Steve Bordeau says all they can do before the first game is practice and get ready to prepare themselves for their Friday night match and upcoming tour.

“We try to simulate everything that can happen in the game, during practice,” Bordeau said.

“We believe it’s going to be a good game,” the head coach added. “[The] first game of the year, so we don’t know a whole lot about the other team and they don’t know a whole lot about us, but we get to play somebody else so it’s a good thing.”

When asked about what he lives by, “perseverance,” is what Kentrell White, a junior offensive lineman, said. Persevering is what the LCHS football team does to get to their level of success now, and every struggle is a battle, but they say, they’re here to battle.

“Hopefully they come to compete,” White said. “We definitely are.”

The Yellow Jackets are coming off an 8-4 season in 2022. Northern Durham finished 2-8 last season, missing the NCHSAA playoffs.