A fan can get up, walk outside, yawn, stare at the horizon and imagine a football season that never ends. It now seems plausible. It seemed as if it would never get here, and now it stretches out, barely finite.

It doesn’t matter which team. It only matters that there is one. In all the American football played everywhere at all levels, at the end of the season the total win-loss record is inevitably going to be .500.  That means a heap of disgruntled people. They’re fans, short for fanatics, long on dramatics.

It’s first Friday night coming down. The lights of K.C. Hanna Stadium will be ablaze when the Laurens Raiders take on the Hillcrest Rams. The Clinton Red Devils will bus down to take on the Batesburg-Leesville Panthers. The Laurens Academy Crusaders won’t be far away from the Devils as they are in North Augusta playing the Augusta Eagles, a team of the home-schooled, in new coach Jolly Doolittle’s debut.

They’re … off!

First the basics. Laurens was 4-7, but a top-seeded 3-1 in Region 2-4A play, last year. Clinton was 13-1, and advanced to the Class 3A Upstate final, where Powdersville eliminated the Red Devils, 27-14. Laurens Academy was 4-7 and, like LDHS, fell in the first round of the playoffs. Thornwell, playing varsity football for the first time, waits until later to visit Calhoun Falls Charter. The Crusaders play eight men at a time; the Saints intend to play eight games of 11.

Hillcrest (9-2 last year), like Laurens, fell in the first round of the playoffs, though the Rams are in Class 5A. Anthony Frate’s final team defeated the Raiders, 41-7, last year in Simpsonville. This game marks the first for head coach Bennett Swygert at the Hillcrest helm. Frate is now at Wren. Swygert is a former college assistant at South Carolina State and Newberry.

The Laurens-Hillcrest series is an odd one. The Raiders lead, 34-16-2, but the Rams have won four straight and seven of the past eight. Laurens once won 16 straight (1982-97). Plus, this is Hillcrest’s first visit to Laurens since 2018.

Batesburg-Leesville went 4-6 in Greg Lawson’s first year as head coach. Lawson was head coach at Laurens from 2008-11. Clinton opened against the Panthers at Wilder Stadium last year and won, 55-20.

Laurens and Clinton both won warm-ups in York, with the Raiders winning, 17-7, over Fort Mill in the first of four segments at the Bill Pate White Rose Classic, and Clinton blanking the hometown Cougars, 14-0, in the last.

Laurens Academy played two quarters in Winnsboro, falling 20-16 to Wardlaw and 2-0 to Winn. Great Falls defeated Thornwell at least 26-0 (the score after a quarter) in the Chester County Jamboree.

So much of preseason expectations is relative. Every team has players returning and players being replaced. Coaches identify the players best equipped to play, but there’s the matter of whether or not those players can match the returnees and replacements of the opposition. Hence do they play the games and not just exchange notes.

Hillcrest is the first of three straight home games as Laurens opens its season. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Raiders’ early schedule is again back-breaking. The friendly confines of K.C. Hanna are to be invaded by Hillcrest, Clinton and Belton-Honea Path, who were a combined 32-5 last year. Then the Raiders travel to Chapman (Inman), Union County and T.L. Hanna (Anderson) before turning to the region schedule on Sept. 29, finally back at home to face Greer.

Quarterback Nate Fowler is one of few familiar faces on the Laurens offense, which has been revamped and speeded up by Daryl Smith’s new offensive coordinator, Tyler Kirby. Josh Goodwin caught a pair of touchdown passes versus Fort Mill.

The Raider defense figures to be its strength, and the scrimmage performance underscored its potential. Hillcrest’s star quarterback, Bennett Judy, has moved on to Western Carolina. The key to containing the Rams resides in the Laurens linebacking corps, where Malik Jackson and Noah Mosley are outstanding.

Smith said the defensive line could be the best of his time – this is his fourth season – as Raider head coach.

Owing in part to the schedule, the jury is out on the Raiders. An early upset would mean a lot.

Clinton, which graduated a notably talented corps of seniors, appears to have plenty of replacement parts in the engine, based on its showing in scrimmages. It’s impossible to lose a Bryson James without some effect, but it appears as if the Red Devils have an improved passing game. Kadon Crawford and Zay Johnson have meshed well with the new quarterback, junior Tyshuwan Richardson, but Clinton’s chief aim is to use the threat of the pass to bust its runners loose, most notably Jayden Robinson and Tray Cook. Rion Gordon leads an otherwise young line.

Johnson, a Cincinnati commit most noted for his work in the defensive backfield, is splendid, as are sure-tackling linebackers Brett Young and Kason Copeland.

Expectations remain high in Clinton, which visits Laurens on Nov. 25, then hosts Newberry, Aiken and Chapman before visiting South Aiken. The Region 4-3A slate begins with Union County at Wilder Stadium on Sept. 29.

Clinton plays Chapman a week after the Raiders and Union two weeks after.

Corey Fountain has improved in each of his four previous seasons with the Red Devils  – 4-7, 3-3, 11-2, 13-1 – for an overall record of 31-13. He was particularly pleased with the defense’s pursuit in the York warm-up.

It’s impossible to turn eight-man football into three yards and a cloud of dust, but under Doolittle, Laurens Academy may be a bit more fierce and a bit less frantic. The Crusaders lack the big-play capability of graduated Clarence Bertoli, but Buddy Baker figures to be a standout both as pass receiver and defender. Hack Hardy and Garrison Vaughan anchor the lines. Ethan Collins will take the snaps.

In the Winnsboro jamboree, LA took on teams, Wardlaw and Richard Winn, it will play later. In fact, it plays Winn in the second game (Aug. 25) and later in the season (Oct. 27), as well.

The season’s upon us. Help me cover the county — and my beloved Furman Paladins — by sending a check to DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325 or becoming a patron here. Support our advertisers and tell them we sent you. It’s going to be fun. Help make it funner.

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