MOULTRIE — The 2024 Colquitt County football team headed into its second and final dead week with weight room and conditioning testing and a productive two-day padded camp at Cairo.

After being off this week, the Packers will resume preparations for the August 2 home scrimmage against Bainbridge and the August 16 home season-opener against West High School of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The padded camps — often referred to as OTAs, or organized team activities — at Cairo on June 25 and 27 also included Houston County, Seminole County, Charlton County and Worth County.

It enabled players to wear helmets and shoulder pads and get as close to a full football experience as summer workout rules allow.

The sessions were just what the doctor ordered for the Packers, coach Sean Calhoun said.

“We got a bunch of reps,” he said. “That’s the main thing. You want to get as close to real football as you can in the summer.”

Those sessions took on even more importance this year for a Packer team that might the most inexperienced in recent memory.

The Packers have worked four days a week so far this hot and humid summer as coaches walk a fine line between giving the players too much time off and wearing them out.

But the four days of practice have been rigorous, Calhoun said.

“They are tough,” he said. “They always include weightlifting and some kind of conditioning.”

After a week in which coaches are not allowed to have contact with their players, Colquitt County will return to work and will play host to a padded camp of its own on July 10-11 with Houston County, Lincoln High of Tallahassee and Dougherty visiting.

The season-opener against the team traveling to Moultrie from the Beehive State will be the first of seven regular-season games on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Reserved seats will be $100 this season and fans can purchase their tickets at the Colquitt County High School ticket office from July 10-21 before they go on sale to the general public.

The ticket office will be open 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m.-noon on Friday.

Reserved seat tickets purchased at the ticket office can be paid for by cash, check or debit/credit card. Debit or credit card purchases will be subject to a service charge.

Mail-in payments for tickets must be received by July 17.

The athletic department will begin mailing tickets on July 10 for which it has received payment.

At 8 a.m. on July 24, all remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public at the ticket office.

For more information, contact the athletic department at 890-6252.