The Hillsboro High School Fish Fry, a late summer tradition that has been held annually for about as long as anyone can remember, will not be held during an Indian football scrimmage this year. But it is not completely going away either.

Hillsboro Athletic Director Dave Dietrick said that Paint Valley, Hillsboro’s opponent for several years during its final scrimmage of the season, has decided to go in a different direction and that Hillsboro will not have a home scrimmage the final week before the regular season, when the fish fry has traditionally been held.

Instead, the Indians will travel to Batavia for a 7 p.m. scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 19 to wrap up the preseason. Prior to that, Hillsboro will visit Unioto for a 6 p.m. scrimmage on Tuesday, Aug. 8 then will host a 6 p.m. scrimmage Friday, Aug. 11 against Blanchester.

“Paint Valley made the decision to go in a different route, and that’s fine,” Dietrick said. “It’s very rare that a team would travel for their final scrimmage every year and Paint Valley has did that for us for several years now.”

However, during the Aug. 11 scrimmage, Dietrick said all Hillsboro fall sports athletes will be introduced, like they traditionally were during the fish fry. And, when Hillsboro hosts Western Brown in its regular season opener on Friday, Aug. 25, Dietrick said the fish sandwiches that Arlene and the late Joe Cole made popular will be on the concession stand menu.

Like all Hillsboro varsity football games this season, the Aug. 25 season opener will have a 7 p.m. start time. But Dietrick said the fish sandwiches will be on sale a couple hours before the game.

“That way if there’s someone that’s not going to be able to be at the game but still wants to get a fish sandwich to take home with them, they’ll be able to do that,” Dietrick said.

In the past, most regular season varsity football games started at 7:30 p.m. But Dietrick said several conferences have went with 7 p.m. starts the last couple years and that will be the case for the Frontier Athletic Conference, which Hillsboro starts play in this year.

The Southern Buckeye Conference also starts Friday football games at 7 p.m. and since all five of the Indians’ non-league opponents (Western Brown, Goshen, East Clinton, Williamsburg and Clermont Northeastern) this year are SBC members, all Hillsboro’s Friday’s games will start at 7 p.m.

In addition to Hillsboro, members of the FAC include McClain, Chillicothe, Washington C.H., Miami Trace and Jackson.

Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or [email protected].