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Welcome back to Polk County’s 2024 football season.

It’s been more than a month since the Wolverines last took the field, that a forgettable 43-6 loss to Landrum on Sept. 12. Polk will finally return to action on Monday, traveling to R-S Central for a Mountain Foothills 7 Conference matchup with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

The combination of the Thursday game against Landrum, a bye due to Patton not fielding a team and then a two-week break in the wake of Hurricane Helene led to what will be the longest break between games in school history. Polk did have a four-week gap between games in the 2020 spring season.

“It’s been a very weird year and season,” said head coach Dustin Fry. “But practices (since returning from the Helene break) have been really good. We came back out and I think guys were happy to be back out and doing stuff.

“We’re healthy, and our energy has been good. We’re probably not in as good a shape, so we’ve got to work on that. But I think they were happy to be back.”

Following the loss to Landrum, Polk (1-3) began preparing for a Sept. 27 game at Hendersonville. Helene’s arrival changed that and left teams with a lot of uncertainty as to how, when or even if the remainder of the season would be played.

Fry and staff originally thought the team would next play at Chase and began preparing for the Trojans. They found out Wednesday afternoon that a trip to face R-S Central (3-3) would first occur, forcing a quick change in game plans.

“We didn’t find out about the Monday-Friday games until (last) Wednesday at 2,” Fry said. “We were prepared for Chase, so we had an hour to switch (before practice) and go all right, let’s go. At least when we get to Hendo, we have the game plan done and we’ll just make some tweaks.

“We went and watched R-S and Chase (Thursday) for the first half, so that helped a little bit. But it’s weird.”

R-S Central defeated Chase 41-26 on Thursday and will have a small window of time to prepare before Monday’s kickoff. Polk will face almost the same scenario this week with the quick turnaround before Friday’s trip to Chase.

Under first-year head coach Jim Ryan, the Hilltoppers have already matched last year’s win total. R-S has relied heavily on a running game that features senior back Karlen McEntyre and junior quarterback Elmer Littlejohn, with McEntyre just 120 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

“We’ve got to stop the run and then not get lulled to sleep when they do try to throw one deep,” Fry said. “It’s all just run, run, run, and then you keep playing it and they’re going to try to sneak one behind you.

“Hopefully, we can pin our ears back a little bit and get it done. They’re a much-improved team. They’ve done a good job over there.”