Coach Ed Pilcher’s’ 2009 Bainbridge High School Bearcats will open football camp Friday.

Players must report to the Decatur County Memorial Coliseum by 6 p.m. Camp and practice sessions will continue through Tuesday with practice sessions each day.

The Bearcats will play a preseason game Friday, Aug. 14, against Albany’s Dougherty High School Trojans at 7:30 p.m. at Centennial Field. Admission will be $5 for students and adults.

Each night of camp, speakers will come to the coliseum to give inspirational talks to the players.

Decatur County School Superintendent Ralph Jones, who coached the 1982 Bearcats and 1990 Cairo High School Syrupmakers to State Class AAA football championships, will speak at the opening of camp on Friday.

Mike Hodges, former outstanding Syrupmakers and Thomasville High School Bulldogs head coach, will speak on Saturday,

The Sunday speaker will be former Thomas County School Superintendent Larry Green, who was an outstanding running back with the Syrupmakers and Florida State University, and the Monday speaker will be Bearcats defensive ends coach Jodie Sprenkle, who played on the late coach Nick Hyder’s Valdosta High School Wildcats 1984 and 1986 State Class AAAA championship teams.

Saturday is the first day Georgia High School Association teams can work in full pads.

With that in mind, Pilcher plans to have a scrimmage just after midnight Friday at Centennial Field.

The Bearcats will open their season Saturday, Aug. 22, against the Cairo High School Syrupmakers at Cairo’s West Thomas Stadium.