HOLLY HILL - When it comes to football, playing with eight or 11 men on the field doesn't matter much to the Holly Hill Raiders.

Last year's SCISA 8-man state champs showed that they had very little trouble with the transition in Week Zero when they opened their season with a 43-6 win over Patrick Henry. Getting used to having an additional three players on the field wasn't all that hard for his players to do according to Raiders head coach Don Shelley.

"The difference between 8-man and 11-man," Shelley said, "is highly exaggerated. Last year, I used a lot of my same terminology when I was coaching 11-man in terms of formations and things like that in 8-man. So what was a pro formation last year is different than what is a pro formation this year. Early on, some of them knew what pro was last year and they would jump into it. It's a little different this year, but that was just the first couple of days."

Shelley has had to readjust to the 11-man game. When drawing out plays or defenses, Shelley admits jokingly that there were times that he wouldn't have enough X's or O's in formations. However, that doesn't happen too often.

The Raiders are happy that they had a ton of success in their first 11-man contest, but they know the season is still young and more tests lie ahead.

"That just gives us a little confidence," Shelley said. "We played much better against Patrick Henry than we did in our two previous scrimmages, but you really don't know whether that's saying sonething about us as a team so much or maybe it's saying something about Patrick Henry."

Shelley will have the chance to re-evaluate his team this week when they travel to St. Matthews to face his good friend Adam Jarecki and the Calhoun Academy Cavaliers. Although both coaches are cordial with each other, neither suspects that this Week 1 contest will turn into a newly formed rivalry.

"We've got a good relationship with Calhoun," Shelley said. "A lot of our kids know a lot of their kids and that kind of adds a little to the intensity, but we really haven't played them in football before. So, I wouldn't say it's a rivalry from in terms of football simply from the fact that we haven't played in so long."

It may not be a rivalry, but it's still a test for the Raiders and Shelley knows his team will have their hands full.

"They're so big up front," Shelley said. "That's probably the biggest team that Adam has ever had over there at Calhoun in terms of size on the offensive and defensive fronts. You worry about them just being able to line up and just come at us and mash us. You can't sell out for the run because the quarterback throws it so well. The biggest concern is that they could take the ball and keep it from us."

T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.TheTandD.com.

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