South Warren’s Gavin Spurrier (left) scrambles with Bowling Green’s Javon Martin in pursuit during the Spartans’ 28-21 win in the Class 5A state playoffs at El Donaldson Stadium.

High school football practice has already started and Bowling Green coach Mark Spader and South Warren coach Brandon Smith had already given up.

With Barren County High School buying out games scheduled against the Purples and the Spartans, Spader and Smith couldn’t find a team to fill that void and settled on playing a nine-game schedule.

Then contact from Colorado last week. Then came another call Saturday from Indianapolis.

Now Bowling Green and South Warren have complete 10-game schedules.

Bowling Green will make an Oct. 12 road trip to Indianapolis to play nationally ranked Warren Central High School. South Warren will host Rocky Mountain High School from Fort Collins, Colo., on Sept. 21.

“It’s been a long process trying to fill this day,” Spader said. “I felt like it was important that we got it filled.”

South Warren announced its newly-scheduled matchup Saturday. Rocky Mountain High School, which went 3-7 in Colorado’s Class 5A last season, will receive $3,000 from SWHS, which comes directly from the buyout Barren County had to pay to both schools to drop the games this fall.

During the offseason, Smith entertained the idea of filling the open week with a prep team from Canada or St. Frances out of Baltimore but plans ultimately didn’t pan out.

High school football in Colorado operates on a 16-team playoff per classification based on rankings through a points system. If a team doesn’t play a full 10-game schedule, its playoff chances are shot.

“A team had dropped them the previous week and it was last minute,” Smith said. “They were kind of in a desperate situation where they wanted to play and we got on the phone with them and got it worked out.”

Bowling Green will take a three-hour trip to Indianapolis to play one of Indiana’s top programs. Warren Central (Ind.) went 7-4 last season in Class 6A and ranked second in the state rankings by MaxPreps. The school has won eight state championships since 1985 and lost a 42-41 shootout to Louisville’s Trinity last season.

“Once the news got out, some of our players texted me and it’s been a really good feeling that they’re reacting the way they are,” Spader said. “I think they’ll step up to the challenge. We’re not used to going into the games being an underdog, but I think they will probably go in with a chip on their shoulder with a game like this.”

The game comes at the perfect time, considering Spader’s alternative during the open week. The open slot came between the team’s bye week and an Oct. 19 game at district rival South Warren. Now the Purples have a top team from another state as a primer to a crucial regular season game.

“I was two or three weeks into accepting the fact we weren’t going to fill that date,” Spader said. “I had started making plans for drafting teams and we were going to have an inter-squad scrimmage, talked about hiring officials and something to give us a competitive night where we had to run special teams off the field and be as game-like as we can.”

South Warren’s contest with Rocky Mountain makes it two out-of-state teams on the Spartans’ schedule. Two weeks following that Sept. 5 game, the Spartans host Ravenwood (Tenn.) as the final contest of a two-game series. They’ll have a bye week before hosting Bowling Green.

“To short (the team) a game, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it and I felt pretty bad about it,” Smith said. “Now I’m a little more at ease knowing they’ll play 10 games like every other kid across the state.”{&end}