It’s game week.

The Rifle Bears will kick off the 2014 season with a home match-up against the Moffat County Bulldogs. The game will kick off at 7:00 on Friday at Bears Stadium. Because of scheduling conflicts, the game had to played a week earlier than the beginning of the normal Colorado high school football schedule. It marks the first “0 Week” contest since the Bears traveled to Grand County Utah in the early part of the last decade.

Moffat County has experienced a lot of major changes in the offseason. The first change was a drop from the 3A classification to 2A. Due to declining enrollment, the Bulldogs now find themselves in the 2A northwest league and will do battle with teams like Aspen, Roaring Fork and Coal Ridge. So for the first time in many decades, the Rifle/Moffat County game will be a non-league affair.

The drop to 2A was a big upheaval but not likely the most significant change of the offseason for the Bulldogs. That distinction goes to the resignation of longtime head coach Kip Hafey after allegations of player on player hazing surfaced following the Bulldog’s summer football team camp in Wyoming. New coach Keith Gille was hired a few weeks later and only had a handful of days to install a new system. Gille was most recently the head coach at Alameda International High Schooland also guided the Yuma Indians to a state title in 2009.

We hope to see you at the game. Thanks as always for supporting the Bears!