Early Monday morning, at 12:01 a.m. to be exact, coach Ed Pilcher’s 2011 Bainbridge High School Bearcats football team will be carrying on a tradition.

Monday is Aug. 1 and that is the first day that the Georgia High School Association allows its member schools to conduct football practice in full pads.

When he took over the Bearcats football program four years ago, coach Pilcher started an early Monday morning practice in pads to begin the team’s annual football camp. The event has really caught on and grown from year to year.

The award-winning Bearcats football and competition cheerleaders will be there to cheer their team on and local fans will be lined up along the sidelines to do likewise.

The football team and cheerleaders are all outstanding young people who bring a lot of positive publicity to Bainbridge and Decatur County. Most of all they are our young people and they deserve our support.

We salute coach Pilcher, his staff and players and cheerleaders coach Lea Hawkins for bringing us such a positive spirit-filled event.