It’s time to tee it up for real.

Area high school football teams, after some 18 days of preseason preparation, will hit the fields when it counts come Friday night.

It promises to be a truly special evening at Tippecanoe Valley High School for week one. There will be a dedication ceremony at halftime for the new press box, which was made possible through a donation by Scott Bibler’s family. The highly-respected and loved Bibler, a former player and coach at Valley, died in a plane crash last October. His wife, Stephanie, and two daughters made the spacious new press box possible.

The new press box at Valley now sits on the west side of the field with new bleachers for the home fans also on that side. The box will also be used for home soccer games for the new Valley soccer program as the soccer field is on the other side of the gorgeous new facility.

Warsaw will hit the road to open at Columbia City before the Tigers host East Noble in week two in their first “official” game on their new synthetic turf field. Warsaw and Valley scrimmaged on the new turf last Friday.

Wawasee hosts South Bend Washington, coached by former Notre Dame player Jay Johnson. The Warriors have not played the Panthers since defeating them in a sectional game back in 2005.

Triton begins its second season under coach Ron Brown with a trip to Caston. Whitko starts the Jeff Sprunger era with a long bus ride to to face Cambridge City Lincoln. Sprunger’s father, Bryan, who is now an assistant coach, guided the Wildcats to a state championship in 1986.

Following is a quick glance at Friday night games with last year’s final records in parentheses.

Warsaw (4-6) at Columbia City (2-8), 7 p.m.

Phil Jensen, like any coach, wants his team to score points.

The Warsaw mentor also realizes that with an outstanding punter in Andrew Mevis on his side that’s not always a bad option.

“Field position in any game is big and the punt is not a bad play with Andrew,” noted Jensen. “I want our offense to put up points, but I want them to take what the defense gives us and take care of the ball.”

Warsaw handled the Eagles quite easily, 27-3, last year.

“They have some big kids up front and that’s a concern if they are able to run the ball,” noted Jensen. “And they have their quarterback back.”

“I was pleased with the scrimmage. Michael (quarterback Michael Jensen) threw the ball well, we have some good receivers and we ran the ball better. I liked the way our defense flew around and got after the ball.

“But the scrimmage was like a quiz. Friday night is our first big test to see where we are really at.”

South Bend Washington (8-3) at Wawasee (3-7), 7 p.m.

The Warriors will look to slow down an athletic Washington team.

“We’re going to have a challenge this week,” said Wawasee coach Josh Ekovich. “Washington is athletic. They want to spread you out and use their speed to their advantage.

“We need to limit their explosive plays and handle the highs and the lows of the game on an even keel. I want to see us come out and hit harder than they do and win the turnover battle.”

Wawasee attempts to get back to winning ways with a more experienced group this fall.

“The guys had a good summer and good two-a-days,” noted Ekovich. “With the experience we have back, the confidence level is up from last year. Hopefully that transfers onto the field on Friday nights.”

Culver Academy (7-6) at Tippecanoe Valley (3-7), 7:30 p.m.

Darin Holsopple expects bigger and better things in his second season in Akron.

Holsopple, a former assistant coach at Fairfield, took over the Valley program last summer when Bibler resigned as coach and guidance counselor to take a job outside the school system.

“I can’t wait for Friday night to see how we have improved,” said Holsopple. “We’ve had a whole year together and I’ve seen a tremendous amount of improvement in practice.”

Valley will be led by senior Alec Craig, who enters his third year as the starting quarterback.

“We were extremely close in several games last year,” noted Holsopple. “The key this year will be how we start games. We can’t dig an early hole. That’s what hurt us last year.

“I want to see tenacity and grit from our guys Friday night. I want our offensive line to communicate. I’m looking forward to seeing what our skill guys can do. We have some guys who are new and some who played JV last year.”

Culver Academy topped Valley, 27-19, in 2015.

Triton (2-8) at Caston (1-9), 7 p.m.

Numbers, along with hopes, are up in Bourbon.

The Trojans, despite losing the majority of their key offensive performers from last year, are optimistic.

“We’re hopeful and the preseason has been great,” said coach Ron Brown, who took over the team. “I’m a lot more comfortable since I knew what we would have this year.”

“We now have depth. We can now run two practices (varsity and JV) for the first time since I’ve been here. I think that those increased reps will pay dividends for us.

“Our goal is to compete with every team we play. I’m looking for us to sustain blocks, be aggressive on both sides of the ball and execute plays Friday night.”

Triton topped Caston by a 26-20 final a year ago.

Whitko (6-6)  at Cambridge City Lincoln (5-7), 7:30 p.m.

Focus.

That’s what first-year coach Sprunger wants to see with a long bus ride and a rivalry game up next week staring at his team in the opening two weeks.

“I know a lot of our guys, especially our seniors, are looking to the Columbia City game next week,” admitted Sprunger. “We need to keep focused on this week first.”

Sprunger, a 2006 Whitko graduate, takes over for Josh Mohr. Now the Whitko Athletic Director, Mohr was 18-14 in his three seasons, leading Whitko to the Three Rivers Conference championship game and a sectional final.

“I’ve had great support and that made for a rather smooth transition,” said Sprunger, who was an assistant coach for the Wildcats last year.

“We need to control the game at the line Friday night. We need to stick to the little things and focus on ourselves. We harp on hustling and doing everything at 100 percent all the time.”

The Wildcats beat Cambridge City Lincoln, 49-6, a year ago.