Thursday marked the start of the high school football season for teams from the area and across the state. Here's a look at the area teams that practiced Thursday afternoon.

CROATAN COUGARS

Croatan coach Andrew Gurley said he noticed a difference between his second first day of practice Thursday and his first.

“I think knowing what to expect helps,” said Gurley, who led the Cougars to a 6-6 mark in his first year at the helm last season. “Having a year under my belt, the biggest thing is knowing what to expect and when to do this and when to do that and when to get a head start on certain things. It also helps having a good staff. We work so well together.”

The Cougars not only won six games in Gurley’s first year as head coach, they also hosted a playoff game for the first time in program history, a game they won 24-21 in overtime over Currituck.

And while that was a special moment for a team that started last year 0-4, Gurley said his players understand they must move forward.

“We definitely finished the season strong and we want some of that momentum to carry over,” Gurley said. “But when we showed up on April 1 (for spring practice), they were ready to work. I haven’t had to give the ‘Last year is over speech.’ We have new guys and a senior class that’s a group of leaders. That’s important.”

The Cougars are looking at having around 35 varsity players and 30 for JV. Those numbers, Gurley said, are on average to the previous three years.

“But if you look at a 10-year time frame, that’s above average,” he said. “I remember when we were just happy to have 25.”

There certainly is some excitement in Broad Creek for football. So much that the Cougars will hold a Midnight Madness practice Friday into Saturday.

“We usually bring them in on Saturday morning but we wanted to try something different,” Gurley said.

Croatan opens Aug. 23 at White Oak.

DIXON BULLDOGS

How does Dixon fourth year coach Chris Morris feel about the first day of practice?

“Hopefully you’ve been doing the right things all summer where you can just continue,” he said. “Now it’s official.”

Simply, Morris feels if teams work hard and utilize the summer, than the first official day should be like any other day, although he did add that it being official is still a big deal.

And the Bulldogs did get some work done this summer, he said.

“We don’t have enough in the summer, but the ones who did come have worked hard,” Morris said. “My guess is that we will be in the 30 range for varsity.”

Dixon last year went 2-9. The team started 0-6.

Morris hopes for the Bulldogs to make strides this season.

“I have good kids,” he said. “I told them that I wanted them to work on two things and hopefully (that) will carry over into everything else we do. I want them to have fun at practice and practice their tails off. I asked them if we can do both? Can we go out and enjoy being at football practice and do it at max effort?”

Dixon opens Aug. 23 at Swansboro.

LEJEUNE DEVILPUPS

The good news for Lejeune’s first practice is that "it was a good day," first-year coach John Delle said.

"There was a lot of heart and determination from the kids," he said. "We probably had 33 kids, which is a lot more than I expected. It was great. It’s probably one of those cycles. You have good years and you have lean years. This year we have a lot more kids, which is good."

That should mean good news for the Devilpups, who have been 0-11 three of the last four years and only have one win in that span. That victory was the regular-season finale in 2015.

Delle, who was named head coach last month, hopes the Devilpups progress this season.

He added that while he’s familiar with a lot of the players, the first practice marked the first time he was able to work with his team.

"The emphasis is on the team," he said. "Everything is about the team and not doing it as individuals. If one does a good job, we all do a good job. If one messes up, we all mess up."

Lejeune opens Aug. 23 at Jones Senior.

SOUTHWEST STALLIONS

August 1 still means a lot to Southwest fourth-year coach Charlie Dempsey, a former standout lineman for the Stallions.

But at the same time, Dempsey knows it’s still business as usual for his Stallions, who last year went 12-3 and advanced to the NCHSAA 2-A East Regional final for the second consecutive year.

“We are going to be young. We are looking at four or five sophomores starting for us this year,” Dempsey said. “ The young kids have to grow up fast, but just because we don’t have as many seniors, it doesn’t mean our expectations have changed.”

Dempsey said his team sports around 40 varsity players and 39 on JV. It’s on par, compared to recent years. This year’s Stallions put in the work throughout the offseason, he added.

“I was really pleased with this group,” Dempsey said. “We have a great group of kids and we had great attendance. We are going to be young, and we might not be as strong as we were, but these young guys will be similar to the group we had before. They are not far off.”

The Stallions were hampered by afternoon rains. But they didn’t fret. Southwest players could be seen getting their work done in the weight room.

“We put so much work into it, we are ready to get the season kicked off,” Dempsey said. “We just need to clean up what we’ve been doing. Before you know it, the first game will be here.”

Southwest opens Aug. 23 at home against Jacksonville.

SWANSBORO PIRATES

Swansboro "will be small in numbers," but have "hard workers," 16th-year coach Tim Laspada said.

And that’s what Laspada said he wanted was hard workers. So much so that the Pirates anticipate having to hold cuts after three days, despite being limited in players.

"We had between 20 to 30 on varsity and 15 to 25 on JV throughout the summer," he said. "But we are having tryouts and we will have to cut some kids. It’s part of the expectation that we set. It’s an effort to get these kids to have good grades, be good at school and in the community and in the weight room."

The Pirates went 3-6 last year.

"We’ve been working throughout the year," Laspada said. "The next couple of days, we will run a couple of physical fitness things and see who hasn’t done what they were supposed to. Then we will instill some things. We don’t have much time. We scrimmage on Aug. 12."

The Pirates open Aug. 23 at home against Dixon.

WHITE OAK VIKINGS

Things are a little different for Jonathan Byrd as he enters his second season as White Oak’s coach.

"I’m in a different position because I have so many more coaches," he said. "I get to be a head coach rather than try to be a coordinator. I let my coaches coach. I really have a good staff. I think year two, we are going in the right direction. We have more kids and we have more coaches."

The Vikings, who finished 2-8 following a 2-0 start last year, feature about 40 varsity players and 35 on JV. Byrd added that the total number will be closer to 80 "once all the physicals are squared away."

The summer program also had good participation.

"We had between 50 to 60 kids all summer long," Byrd said. "Attendance has been good. The kids really developed. We are going to look good getting off the bus."

That’s the good news. The bad?

"We are young," Byrd said. "We are going to probably start 10 to 12 sophomores."

The big emphasis the rest of this week and next, the coach said, was to find out who his more physical players will be this season.

"Once we get into helmet and shoulder pads and knock heads a little bit, we will find out if we can block an if we can tackle," Byrd said. "If we can do those two things, we will be pretty good."

White Oak opens Aug, 23 at home against Croatan.

Chris Miller can be contacted via email at chris.miller@

jdnews.com or by calling

910-219-8472. Follow him

Photo Gallery #2-Afternoon Practices: https://www.jdnews.com/photogallery/NC/20190802/SPORTS/801009976/PH/1