The Venice High football team opens its regular season Friday at Booker, and I suspect the Indians won’t have nearly as tough a time emerging with a victory as they did in their 24-23 nail-biting preseason win over Palmetto a couple weeks ago.

For one, Booker is still reeling from the abrupt departure of its former head coach, Carlos Woods, in August. Woods resigned two days before the start of fall practice to return to New Jersey and tend to his 2-year-old son, who has leukemia. In an odd (to say the least) twist, Woods accepted an assistant coaching position at Delaware State a few days after leaving Booker.