Escambia County will host a Night of Champions Friday when they take on the W.S. Neal Blue Eagles at Herbert Barnes Stadium.

The Blue Devils (2-1, 1-1) will not only host the Blue Eagles, but coaches, players, cheerleaders and managers from Escambia County’s 1983 state championship team, and will give a presentation to honor them at halftime.

Atmore will look to get back on track this week after suffering their first loss last Friday night at the hands of the Class 4A, No. 4-ranked UMS-Wright Bulldogs at Cooper Stadium in Mobile.

Blue Devils head coach Mark Heaton said his team will go back to practice working exactly like they have every other week.

“We are going to keep doing the same things we have been doing to prepare,” Heaton said. “I think we need better concentration from our kids on what we want them do. I think that was the key to our mistakes that led to our loss last Friday. We’ll stress the importance of focusing, and see how well it works for us this Friday.”

To make sure the Blue Devils learn focus, the coaching staff will key in on each group to make sure they know their assignments.

Heaton said that getting the players zoned in on their concentration will help correct issues they had against UMS-Wright.

“We just have to stress focus to each individual group,” Heaton said. “We have to work on getting our assignments right, and make sure we do the little things correctly.”

Although this week’s opponent has not had much success this season, Heaton knows his team cannot get ahead of themselves.

He said W.S. Neal has improved each week that they have played.

“They’ve gotten better everytime that I’ve seen them on film,” Heaton said. “They actually had some success running the ball against Jackson last week, which is concerning.”

It’s also a big night with the 1983 ECHS state champions being honored.

Heaton said he hopes the community comes out to show support for the last championship football team Atmore had.

“I’m super excited about this,” he said. “Just having these guys and the tradition they bring back on this campus is huge. I hope the community comes out and supports them and what they did, and cheer us on as well.”

The Blue Devils and Blue Eagles kick off Friday at 7 p.m. at Herbert Barnes Stadium.