With Week 1 kickoffs just three weeks away, high school football teams in Southwest Virginia are still in the early stages of readying themselves for the next several months on the gridiron.

The Roanoke Times has been publishing lists of players to watch at each position — look for linemen on Saturday — but let’s change things up and look at entire teams that warrant your attention. These squads either have several key returners and are liable to make deep postseason runs, or are burgeoning squads that showed growth last year and could develop further this fall.

Here are nine Timesland football teams to watch this season.

Alleghany

Stat to know: The Cougars have won 16 straight regular-season games and are 20-3 overall since Alleghany and Covington merged schools.

Player to watch: D

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