West Lauderdale begins the Region 4-4A portion of its schedule Friday.

The approach is still one Friday at a time.

The Knights (2-2) are coming off a 40-21 win at Southeast Lauderdale last week, and West Lauderdale travels to Leake Central Friday. While it’s the part of the schedule that determines the postseason seeding, Knights head coach Brock Clay said he’s looking at it a little differently in 2020.

Having a season in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic means games can get canceled at a moment’s notice, so for Clay, it’s another game the Knights are actually getting to play when they’re not promised that each Friday.

“I’m excited to play,” Clay said. “It’s like I’ve said (before) each game all year, we’re glad to get the opportunity. A lot of people probably wondered if we’d still be at this point. I’m tickled to death to get to play, and I hope the rest of the season plays out like the first half has for us. Each week you have a different group that may or may not be quarantined. We lost a district ball game earlier this week when we found out Kosciusko is out for next week, but we’re trying to find a game for next week, so hopefully we can get that to work out.”

The Knights already had to change the schedule two weeks ago when Quitman, West Lauderdale’s original Sept. 18 opponent, had to cancel due to multiple players being in quarantine. They ended up playing Tupelo that week instead. On Tuesday, the Lauderdale County School District announced it would do distance learning on Wednesdays for the rest of the semester. It’s just two examples of a difficult season to navigate, but junior running back Ja’Karius Grant said even with the day-to-day changes he doesn’t feel overwhelmed by it all.

“We’re just following the right guidelines and staying positive with everything we do,” Grant said.

It also helps that football has been a constant for Grant and his teammates.

“Having football is very important,” Grant said. “There are so many things I want to do, and with this I know I have my family with me, and there’s so much I can accomplish with football.”

Turnovers and penalties were an issue the first few weeks for the Knights, but Clay said it was nothing out of the ordinary for a team in the early part of the season.

“We haven’t seen anything different than in a regular season,” Clay said. “We have four games under our belts now, so it’s not that bad of a swing as far as where we’d normally be at this time in the season.”

As usual with the Gators (1-3), Clay said Leake Central will bring plenty of athleticism to the field Friday.

“Their skill positions are extremely fast, and they’re very talented and elusive in the open field, just like they always are,” Clay said. “They’re really big up front on both sides of the ball, so they’re as scary as always.”

No matter what challenges lie ahead in Region 4-4A, Grant said he and his teammates are confident in their ability to meet those challenges.

“I feel great,” Grant said. “I think we’ll execute to the best of our abilities, just like we did last week against Southeast.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday at Leake Central.