All three St. Francis County high school football teams -- Forrest City, Palestine-Wheatley and Hughes -- will get a chance to find out just where they stand next week in local scrimmages.
The Mustangs will host West Helena on Tuesday, Aug. 26, in a benefit game sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association.
The game will be played at Sam Smith Field.
"We hope that game will tell us where we are, where we need to be and what we have to do to make certain we are ready for Wynne on Sept. 5," said fifth-year Forrest City Coach Donnie Willis.
The Mustangs will host Wynne for their season opener before playing Marianna and Osceola on the road for their nonconference portion of the schedule.
Willis said Tuesday that, despite the intense heat the last couple of days, "the Mustang players are holding up well and so far, have not been affected."
The Junior Mustangs will travel to Osceola Tuesday to compete in a three-team jamboree.
Palestine-Wheatley will travel to Clarendon Tuesday night as both the junior and senior high teams take part in a preseason scrimmage.
The Patriots have been working late into the evening hours and have about 30 players while the junior high Patriots have about 50 players taking part in summer drills.
Meanwhile, the Hughes Blue Devils will take part in a scrimmage on Tuesday, at Trumann, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
The Blue Devils are the preseason favorites to win the 3AA Conference after reaching the quarterfinals of the Class AA state playoffs a year ago.
The Junior Blue Devils will take part in a scrimmage on Thursday, Aug. 28.
In other scrimmage games set for next week, Cabot, the preseason favorite in the AAAAA-East will play at Lake Hamilton on Monday, Aug. 25, while Jonesboro will play at Osceola.
Cross County will play at Lonoke on Tuesday while Jacksonville will be at LR Parkview, Marion at Gosnell and Searcy will be at Wynne.