The Class 3A state champion Gold Beach Panthers will kick off their season against the 5A Crook County Cowboys at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Gold Beach, one of six games this week involving South Coast schools.

North Bend hosts Marshfield in the annual Civil War on Friday, while Reedsport plays host to Central Linn, Waldport visits Coquille and Illinois Valley travels to Myrtle Point. Bandon pays a visit to Valley Catholic on Saturday.

Gold Beach coach Kevin Swift said the game against the larger Crook County school will be a good challenge for his team, which went 14-0 last season and hasn’t lost a league game since 2005.

“It’s an opportunity to play a bigger school and see how good we really are,” said Swift.

Despite the size difference, the Panthers aren’t likely to be overmatched by the struggling Crook County program, which went 2-7 last year and 0-6 in the Intermountain Conference.

The game is set for Thursday, rather than the customary Friday opener, in an attempt to capture fans before they take off for Labor Day Weekend.

“We’re just trying to get some people in the stands,” said Swift.

The earlier game might have meant a lost day of practice, but the Panthers instead went to work on Saturday to make up the lost time.

“Anybody who knows me knows I’m not going to give up a day of practice,” said Swift.

The Gold Beach game is one of the Oregon School Activities Association endowment games, which fund the OSAA Foundation, designed to ensure the future of extracurricular activities in Oregon and provide programs to enhance athletics.

Tickets for endowment games are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Half the money raised by the gate receipts is returned to the host school, with the other half going to the foundation.

The program was started in the fall of 2005.The first allocation of funds was used to purchase anti-hazing DVDs for every OSAAmember school last August, said OSAAAssistant Executive Director Peter Weber.

Funds also were used to co-host a health promotion and drug prevention clinic for member schools, starting a new program that schools can implement for their students that deals with health and wellness and making good decisions.

While the endowment program raises funds for the foundation, it also allows teams to play a 10th game, rather than the regular nine-game schedule allowed by OSAA rules. Endowment games also are played in other sports.

To date, more than $400,000 has been generated for the foundation. Interest from the fund is used to pay for the programs, while the prinicpal remains untouched, Weber said.

The Marshfield-North Bend game, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday at Vic Adams Field, also is an endowment game, as is Reedsport’s game against Central Linn and the Myrtle Point-Illinois Valley game.

Both Bandon and Coquille will play just nine games in the regular season, with a bye week scheduled before the start of Sunset Conference play, but Bandon’s game still is considered an endowment game because Valley Catholic has a 10-game schedule.

Powers will begin its season participating in the Camas Valley jamboree on Friday.

Also this week, both NorthBend and Marshfield will hold athlete introduction events.

Meet the Bulldogs is tonight at Vic Adams Field, starting at 6:15 p.m., while Meet the Pirates is Thursday at Marshfield’s Pete Susick Stadium, starting at 5:30 p.m. Both events are free to the public, while people have the option of buying dinner, with the proceeds supporting the schools’ booster clubs.