COURTLAND—After many years in the Bay Rivers District, Southampton High School is ready to enter a new era of football in the Southside District.

The Indians also hope to reinvigorate a program that has had two consecutive losing seasons.

According to Southampton head coach Littleton Parker, the Indians performed well in a pre-season scrimmage against Northampton.

“You scrimmage other people because you get tired of beating up on your teammates so we needed to hit some other schools,” he said. “That’s the reason why we had that scrimmage. It wasn’t a matter of keeping score. We scored four times and they didn’t score any.”

Parker said the team is looking forward to playing in a new district, but is not discounting the non-district games against Bruton (a former Bay Rivers District opponent), Franklin, and Windsor.

“Our whole schedule is tough. We will take it one game at a time,” he said.

The Indians open at Bruton on Sept. 4 and then play at Franklin on Sept. 11. Southampton will open its home schedule against Windsor on Sept. 18.

After a week off, the Indians will play its first Southside District game at Bluestone on Oct. 2.

Southampton was scheduled to scrimmage Smithfield tonight.

Some key players for Southampton this season will be Andre Rawls (QB/S), Calvin Stringfield (FB/LB), Ronald Tyler (DE), Dashean Barner (DE), Billy Nixon (QB/SE/S), Leon Stewart (CB/S/SE), Brandon Evans (LB/SB), Josh Turner (C/OG/DT), Bryan Mayberry (OT/DE), Curtis Hamlin (DT/OG), and Thaddeus Stevenson (TE/LB).