Boy, talk about a way to kick off the high school football season. Where should one begin to talk about Chilton County High’s 19-12 win over Jemison on Thursday? We’ll just jump right in there:

The game itself. This is the obvious point, and it was a great game indeed. Both offenses appeared more conservative than usual in the first half, and the weather would have been an easy assumption for the cause. But CCHS coach Brian Carter said after the game his game plan was to rely heavily on the run anyway. Jemison had a quarterback starting in his first game, as opposed to experienced CCHS senior Taylor Hughes, but the Panthers might have simply wanted to establish a ground game, also. In the end, though, it came down to Chilton’s ability to make a defensive stop when it had to.

Jemison athlete Javae Swindle. As a sophomore that has never been a regular on offense before this season, Swindle could have been seen as a controversial choice to grace the cover of our annual football preview, along with Verbena lineman Jason Ray. But Swindle erased any doubts about his ability or worthiness of recognition by running for two touchdowns and intercepting a pass on defense.

Both teams’ new looks. If you weren’t there, you missed CCHS’s new look: orange helmets with a white tiger paw on top of orange jerseys and white pants with a large orange stripe. Think Clemson. The uniforms are much better than what the team has worn the last couple of years—and maybe ever. I like the all-orange look, and I’m not sure if CCHS has ever pulled it off before.

Jemison, meanwhile, complemented its new white helmets, which are easily the most attractive of all local teams, with navy jerseys and navy pants. It’s a good look, but I hope the Panthers switch the blue pants for white ones at some point. What I would really like to see is the team go white from head to toe.

The weather. I couldn’t be all positive. The players probably loved the constant, heavy rain, but it was miserable for everyone else. Especially those of us covering the game for a newspaper. I’ll just say that water does not mix well with the three main tools of the trade: ink, paper and camera.

Rain or no, it has been an exciting start to the season, and it’s hard to wait for Week 2.