TIFTON — The first high school sporting events of the 2025-26 school year are just around the corner.

Tift County’s Lady Devils have a scrimmage scheduled July 31 and both they and the Tiftarea Academy Lady Panthers open the regular season on Aug. 5.

Veterans comes to Tifton for a 5 p.m. scrimmage as Jen Walls’ Lady Devils get started.

Tift’s first regular season contest is at Westfield, which has long been one of the top programs in the GIAA. The home regular season schedule begins Aug. 6 against Cairo.

The Lady Devils are expected to be a strong team in 2025. They had no seniors in 2024 and finished fourth in Region 1-6A and 18-12 overall.

Tift will have additional non-region games against Coffee, Thomas County Central, Lee County and Cook before opening 1-6A at Lowndes Aug. 26.

Five-time defending GIAA Region 3-3A champions, Tiftarea’s Lady Panthers under new head coach Kayla Williams will host Valdosta High. They will have a second home game Aug. 7 against non-region Crisp Academy.

Playing with no seniors, the Lady Panthers jelled throughout the year, then caught fire in the Class 3A state tournament to finish in the final four.

Williams said they will return a deep lineup, including pitching.

Tiftarea has a solid non-region schedule that includes powerhouse Westfield, Fullington Academy and much larger GHSA schools Valdosta and Cairo.

Varsity will play their first region game Sept. 11 at Brookwood.