High school football coaches greeted not quite 200 candidates at area schools for the first days of official practice.
Shamokin, Mount Carmel, Line Mountain and Southern Columbia all have between 45 and 50 players on their rosters, and all have some specific questions that need to be answered during their scrimmages.
Shamokin
Shamokin Area head coach Dan Foor said he has about 50 players in camp.
"We have a pretty good number but of that total, we only have, I think, 22 with varsity experience," Foor said.
The Indians have a solid nucleus of returning skill players from last season's District 4-AAA champions, but will likely have to rebuild upfront to some extent.
Shamokin scrimmages at Blue Mountain Saturday at 10 a.m.
Line Mountain
Roughly 45 players are out at Line Mountain under first-year head coach Rodney Knock, who served as an assistant the past two seasons under former head coach Mike Carson. Knock has served as head baseball coach the past two seasons but will now give that up.
The Eagles, District 4-A runnerups last season, will scrimmage at Muncy Saturday at 10 a.m.
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel coach Carmen DeFrancesco reported he had 49 players in camp Tuesday.
"We made the best of a bad situation with the rain," DeFrancesco said. "The rain stopped and what we thought would be a bad practice turned out to be a good one."
DeFrancesco said a key spot the Red Tornadoes, last season's District 4-AA champs, need to resolve in the next couple of weeks is the linebacker spot.
"We had Cody Shustack and Tommy Hynoski there, and they were both three-year starters," DeFrancesco said.
Southern Columbia
Head coach Jim Roth has 48 players in camp at Southern, which was the Class A state runnerup in 2011, but said that number is a little misleading.
"We're actually down a little bit in our upper classes," Roth said. "With the freshman football situation, we've brought up 10 freshmen to the varsity. Our first practices have gone pretty well. Tuesday morning was a little tricky with the rain but we've all gotten a break with the weather so far."
Roth said Southern's early success will depend on how quickly first-year starters, of which there will be many, pick things up.
"You never really know that until the first scrimmages," Roth said.
Southern scrimmages Shikellamy at home Saturday at 7 p.m.