Piedmont Announces 2012 Football Schedule

After winning its second state championship in as many seasons in 2011, the Piedmont Academy football team will face one of its more challenging schedules in recent years for the 2012 campaign.

The Cougars will compete in a revamped region but will also face many of their former rivals from region play of past seasons.

One of the more interesting non-region games will be the season opener against Westwood in Camilla. The game will feature the two-time defending Class A champion and the two-time defending Class AA champion. Piedmont and Westwood currently share the longest winning streak in the GISA at 26 games.

Cougar coach Rhett Farmer said he and Westwood coach Ross Worsham talked during the recent All-Star football game about meeting this fall.

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“It’s always tough to fill out your 10-game schedule,” Farmer said. “We discussed it and found that the only available slot was the first game. We hate to travel that far, but they will come to our place the next season. Someone’s winning streak will come to an end. It makes for a lot of excitement for the first game of the season.”

The game with Westwood is scheduled for August 24.

Piedmont will then play its home opener against Trinity (Dublin) August 31 before traveling to Brentwood (Sept. 7), hosting Gatewood (Sept. 14) and traveling to Edmund Burke (Sept. 21.) Brentwood, Gatewood and Edmund Burke are former region opponents for the Cougars.

“We wanted to keep our good rivalries going,” Farmer said. “That will be a tough three-game stretch for us.”

Piedmont will then host Trinity (Sharpsburg), a relatively new program, and Windsor before having its open week October 12.

The Region 4-AA schedule begins October 19 with a home game against Dominion Christian followed by road games against Arlington Christian and Flint River.

The GISA AA playoff format will extend to 16 teams beginning this fall.

While the non-region schedule is tougher perhaps than in previous seasons, Farmer said when you are the two-time defending champion, potential opponents begin to be hard to find. Some of the Cougars’ non-region foes from the past two seasons did not want to play Piedmont again.

“It is a good schedule for us,” Farmer said. “Class AA is going to be very competitive this season. Some quality A schools are moving up and some AAA schools are moving down.”

Spring practice is tentatively scheduled for May 21-June 1. If the baseball team makes it to the state finals, spring practice will be held May 28-June 8.