If the temperatures outside are starting to drop, that can only mean the action indoors is starting to heat up.

Walker County’s high school basketball teams hit the courts last week for the official start of the preseason practice.

Ridgeland boys’ head coach Chris Edge began practice shorthanded as several of his players are still playing football.

“We only have four varsity kids out here right now, so we’re just trying to give some young kids some looks and see what they can do,” he said. “It fun to get back in the gym though. Even though we didn’t get as many games in this summer as we have been lately, we still had a good summer. We have a big senior class and I think the kids are excited about what they can do.”

Both Ridgeland teams will host Dalton’s Christian Heritage School in scrimmages on Nov. 11 starting at 6 p.m.

Optimism is also high in Chickmauga where the Gordon Lee Trojans have a great deal of veterans players back from last year’s Region 6-A championship team.

Although football season is still going on, the situation is a bit better for head coach Ed Clendenen, who only has two varsity players still on the gridiron.

“We’ve got nine of 11 varsity players out right now,” he said, “but the two we’re missing are both guards so it still makes it tough to scrimmage. We’re having to scrimmage our junior varsity and that makes it hard to see where we really are right now.”

Clendenen said practice has picked up this week in preparation for a tough schedule that opens later this month.

“We’re getting more physical this week,” he said. “We’ve got a very challenging schedule with a lot of tough teams. But we’re enthused. We know we have a chance to be pretty good again.”

The Gordon Lee Lady Trojans are also coming off a region title and are looking to maintain their spot at the top of the 6-A standings.

“We’re looking forward to this season,” head coach Lester Galyon said. “We have enough players returning to be competitive. We have some good athletes back and good crop of freshmen, although we do have some big shoes to fill in places.”

Galyon also feels he has a jump on developing early-season chemistry. Nearly all of Galyon’s players were teammates on the school’s softball and volleyball teams, which both advanced to the state playoffs.

“It helps from the standpoint that these girls all know how to win and expect to win,” he said. “We don’t need to pump a lot of confidence into them because they’ve already been in that situation.”

“I’m ready for the first game to get here, but part of me still wants another month to prepare.”

Gordon Lee will host LaFayette in scrimmages on Nov. 18.