After a nine-month hiatus, Friday night lights return to Powell this week.

PHS football plays its annual Zero Week game against the Riverton Wolverines at 6 p.m. Friday at Panther Stadium. The Panthers are fresh off a 6-5 season in which they finished runners-up in Class 3A.

Head coach Chase Kistler is excited to see how the team builds on last year’s success in 2020.

“We have a lot of returners at the skill positions,” Kistler said. “Our starting O-line is all returners too; our starting quarterback [Landon Lengfelder] is a returner. It just makes it really easy for us to pick up where we left off last year.”

Though Kistler thinks his team is in a good place heading into the season, he cited tackling, route running and timing at mesh points as a few things that need to be worked on. A non-conference game like this is an opportunity for the Panthers to hone in on these areas before the heat of the schedule.

“All those things kind of need to be worked on, and a Week Zero game is perfect for that,” Kistler said. “What I love about having a full Zero Week game is you get to work through all the kinks in special teams, play clocks and coaches are on the sideline. It gives it more of a game-like sense, so it’s like a practice for a game.”

A year ago, the Panthers opened the season at Riverton for Zero Week and cruised to a 32-17 victory in enemy territory.

While Riverton has a new head coach in Patrick Patterson, Kistler said playing the Wolverines last season could help the Panthers out in the opener.

“I’d imagine their schemes are pretty similar to what they’ve done in the past,” Kistler said. “Usually they’ve been kind of a spread offense, and they’re defense is pretty solid. We anticipate they’re very similar, but you never know.”

Opposed to last year, when the Panthers made the two-hour trek to Riverton, playing in Powell sets PHS up well for the Zero Week game.

“Starting at home makes our lives easier as far as going to school and having a little down time to get them ready in front of our home fans,” Kistler said. “The adrenaline’s already going to be high. That makes it a little higher, knowing their families are going to be in the stands watching.”

“It definitely gives a sense of advantage. It’s good for us,” he said.

At one point, the football season appeared to be in jeopardy because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to a relatively low number of cases in Park County and Wyoming as a whole, the season is on as planned.

Kistler said he expects strong fan support after a long stretch of few live sporting events in the area.

“I think everyone’s going to be excited just to watch football,” he said. “I think so many people have had no sports for so long that I think people are going to be excited to watch.”