It feels like just yesterday that we were all waiting anxiously for the fast-approaching 2007 football season. Well that’s come and gone, and now we are in the fifth week of the season.

There’s only six weeks left until the postseason, then we have to sit and wait until next year. Oh no.

So if you haven’t gotten around to seeing a local high school football game, you had better get on it. Luckily, this week, there will be a plethora of great games in the area to choose from.

First off, the Region 1-AAAAA schedule gets under way this week, and both the Lowndes Vikings (3-1) and the Valdosta Wildcats (3-1) open with home games.

With both teams off to a good start, hopes and expectations are high again. Each team has had one tough loss, but also three big wins to boost morale before region play.

The Vikings open with the state No. 2 Coffee High Trojans (4-0). With the way both teams are playing, the Concrete Palace could be hosting the region championship on Friday.

The Wildcats are also in that region talk, and they start with the Colquitt County Packers (0-4). After losing a heartbreaker in Moultrie last year, Valdosta will open its schedule looking for revenge, and its first region win since 2005 — which, ironically, came against Colquitt (24-14).

Two of the three Region 1-AA schools are at home this week as well.

The Cook Hornets (2-1) are off to a good start under new head coach Jim Scroggins. After losing their region opener, the Hornets will be looking to bounce back against the Randolph-Clay Red Devils (2-1).

The Brooks County Trojans (0-4) are struggling thus far, but have a chance to regroup and get in the win column as they host the Albany Indians (0-4).

The other local 1-AA team, the Berrien Rebels (2-2), are driving down U.S. 84 to face off with the Thomasville Bulldogs (2-2).

The two local teams hailing from region 1-A face-off tonight, as the Lanier County Bulldogs (2-2) travel to Homerville to face the Clinch County Panthers (1-2), ranked No. 8 in Class A.

The Bulldogs will be looking for the upset, but Clinch’s record is misleading. The Panthers’ two loses came against some of the best Georgia has to offer, AA No. 1 Charlton County and AAAAA No. 2 Coffee.

The lone local GISA team, the Valwood Valiants (4-0), have their biggest game of the season so far on Friday as well. The Valiants travel three hours away to Dublin to square off with the Trinity Christian Crusaders (3-1) in a rematch of the 2006 GISA Class AA state championship.

One of the best scoring defenses in GISA, Valwood, will have its biggest test yet when it faces one of the state’s best rushing attacks in Trinity and its bruising 240-pound back, Colby Jackson.