It was the middle of August, and Lemuel Lackey said something that sure sounded funny coming at the end of a Lucy C. Laney-T.W. Josey football game.

"I'm ready for the season to start," he said.

Laney doesn't so much enter a new season as a new era. It will be a year of firsts for the Wildcats, starting with that scrimmage against Josey and ending, they hope, with one of their hardest-earned playoff trips in recent memory.

For the first time, Laney won't play a team in Richmond County -- it has played at least three each of the past five seasons -- and its closest road game will be nearly 60 miles away at Screven County. The school's decision to stay in Class AA ended a 44-year rivalry with Josey and a 36-year series with Westside.

The Wildcats won six games last year, their fewest since 1999, but still made the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.

Getting back will be tough. Laney, the smallest football- playing school in the county, might have stayed down in classification, but its schedule is probably more difficult than anyone in the new Region 3-AAAA.

Laney is one of eight teams in Region 3-AA that made the playoffs a year ago. Only one of 11 teams, Southeast Bulloch, didn't win at least five games.

"This is a tough region, obviously ... we will have to fight for a (playoff berth)," Lackey said.

Certainly, Laney won't be without talent. It returns 14 starters from Lackey's first team, including a trio of third-team All-Area selections: lineman Arthur Hope, running back Eugene Moore and linebacker Courtney Roundtree.

An injury to Kwame Cunningham forced three players to play quarterback last season. Cunningham, one of 21 seniors on the team, led the offense in its scrimmage against Josey.

Lackey is preaching consistency to his team, something he felt was missing last season. The Wildcats beat strong teams such as Strom Thurmond and Swainsboro, then cratered by losing their final three games. In that span, the Wildcats lost to Josey for the first time since 1999 and didn't score in a first-round playoff exit.

With a host of players returning, Moore said the seniors realize the onus is on them.

"It's our turn to be the leaders and make good decisions," Moore said. "We know what we're capable of doing."