CHAPMANVILLE — It’s been a rice run for the Chapmanville Regional High School football team.

The Tigers would like to keep it going.

Chapmanville is scheduled to kick off the new grid season Friday at 7:30 p.m. at home against Sissonville.

The Tigers have recorded three straight winning seasons.

The last two seasons Chapmanville has made it to the playoffs.

Plenty of new faces will have to step up to lead the Tigers this fall but Chapmanville is banking on a fourth straight winning campaign.

It all begins tomorrow night against the Indians.

Chapmanville coach George Barker, now in his sixth season at the helm, said his team is excited about getting it started tomorrow night at Tiger Stadium.

The Tigers held their own in a pair of preseason games against Clay County and Williamstown, the defending Class A state champions.

“We took a look at our personnel. We’re trying to play more players,” Barker said. “That means that we’ve got a lot of kids who are green, but a lot of those kids did a lot of spot play for us last year and played on both sides of the ball but we just didn’t play enough players. We’re trying to get more players involved and as the season wears on we should improve. Right now, we’re pleased with what we’ve seen but we just hope that we can compete at the level of our schedule.”

Chapmanville and Sissonville, two Cardinal Conference foes, have met each other the last three seasons in the opener.

The Tigers won last year’s game, 41-19, at Sissonville. The Indians beat the Tigers 27-21 in overtime in 2007 at CRHS. Sissonville also won 34-14 over Chapmanville in the 2006 season opener.

Sissonville went just 4-6 last year.

The Indians were 6-4 in 2007 and made it to the playoffs. Sissonville, though, lost in the first round.

The Tigers head into the season opener with a three-game losing skid. Chapmanville lost to Wayne and Point Pleasant to close out the regular season after starting out 8-0.

Chapmanville then was blanked 33-0 by James Monroe in the first round of the Class AA playoffs at Tiger Stadium. It was the school’s first-ever home playoff game in the Town of Chapmanville.

“They have their front eight back on defense,” Barker said of the Indians. “They have their entire starting offensive line back including their quarterback. They’re big up front but inexperienced in the skilled positions except for the quarterback position. We’re expecting another Cardinal Conference battle and we hope that we can come out on top.”

Barker said his team has a few injuries going into the game.

“Joe Woody has a bit of a strained knee. He’s doubtful right now,” he said. “Brad Parsons has the same type of injury and he’s also doubtful. They are both trying to work themselves into shape so we’ll just have to see by game time. We’re in pretty good shape overall. That’s just the nature of the game in football. If you are the number two you have to be ready to play.”

Chapmanville is led by quarterback Josh Easterling, fullback Todd Terry and lineman Jon Casto, who led the team in tackles a year ago.

The Tigers will also be looking for big things from sophomore tailback Dylan Wiley, the younger brother to graduated senior running back David Wiley.

Chapmanville lost nine two-way starters to graduation.

Barker said Opening Night is always exciting in prep football.

“I don’t think it gets any better than your season opener,” he said. “Some of these kids had good years last year and they have been wanting to play since then. You have new cheerleading squads, new bands and a lot of people in the stands. It’s exciting.”

Tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Tiger Stadium it will be “Meet the Tigers Night.”

The Chapmanville Regional and Chapmanville Middle School football teams will be introduced to the crowd along with the cheerleaders, band and the CRHS volleyball and golf teams.

“We’re creating some enthusiasm for the new school year,” Barker said. Sometimes as adults we kind of forget how exciting it is this time of the year to be in high school. I always tell our kids that they give you 10 games to play. This is the first out of 10. It’s not like baseball and basketball where they give you all of those games. We only get 10.”

Chapmanville gets back into action next week at Herbert Hoover with another league game.

On Sept. 11, the Tigers host rival Scott.