The Demopolis High School football team will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on American Christian Academy Friday night in a game that brings more to the table than just the opening game of the season.

The two head coaches will be facing off for the first time as coaches, but the two have competed against each other throughout their lives. They are brothers.

Demopolis head coach Tom Causey and ACA head coach John Causey have always been rivals as siblings, but they will have to get their teams ready to face off without worrying about their own rivalry. At least until after the game.

“You don’t see other coaches that you go against at Thanksgiving or Christmas,” Tom Causey said. “But we just have to prepare for this game like it is any other. Right now, we are just preparing for ACA.”

“You have to catch yourself sometimes in this situation,” John Causey said, “because we have to prepare like it is just another game.”

Both coaches are preparing for a tough, hard-nosed game, because they know each other well enough to know that neither team will quit until the final whistle.

“I’ve been telling our players since January that they need to be ready for a 13-round fight,” John Causey said. “If the fight is scheduled for 12 rounds, I know Tom will take us to 13. They are classy, hard-nosed and have a no-quit attitude.”

In last week’s jamboree game, Demopolis had some mistakes that the coaching staff is making sure are corrected this week, but they also know that, early in the season, once you fix mistakes, more will pop up.

“We have to make corrections based on last week’s game,” Tom Causey said, “and hope that it shows on Friday night. The coaches started working on that Saturday, and we got the players started on it Monday.”

This will be the first regular season game of the year for both teams. Demopolis finished 2011 with a 6-5 record, while ACA finished 12-2, losing in the state semifinals to 2A state champion Elba.