While their opponents were home Friday night, snug in their beds after a week of exhausting two-a-day practices, the Porters Chapel Eagles were going back to work.

As soon as Friday turned into Saturday — 12:01 a.m., to be exact — the Eagles hit the practice field for a full two-hour workout. Saturday was the first day teams were allowed to practice in full pads, and the perfect opportunity for PCA to showcase half of its season motto “first on, last off.”

“This is the definition of it. If you look in the dictionary for that, you’ll see our picture,” PCA lineman Jacob Smithey said during a 12:30 a.m. water break. “We were hyped up. Right now, I feel like I’m ready to play a game.”

Running back Steven Moore agreed.

“It’s real exciting. The first day of full pads, it’s what everybody’s been waiting for,” he said. “We’re the first ones in pads. Everybody else is in bed right now.”

College basketball teams have done versions of “midnight madness” for years as a way to mark the first day of practice. Those events often draw hundreds or thousands of fans to noisy arenas for the event that is a glorified pep rally.

The high school football version of midnight madness was much more low-key.

Fearing noise complaints from the nearby residential neighborhood, coaches nixed a plan to play music during the workout. The crowd, numbering about 25 parents, grandparents, family members and friends, was far smaller than the one expected for the season-opener against Tallulah Academy on Aug. 20.

That hardly mattered, though. The team went through a high-energy session of football drills, then ran some offensive plays into the wee hours of the morning.

PCA coach John Weaver said the team fed off the sight of the crowd to bring a satisfying end to a long day.

“It’s great to see,” he said. “They saw that and said, ‘We’ve got a crowd? People want to watch us?’ I had chill bumps. It felt like we were going to a game.”

The Eagles had their normal Friday morning workout, then skipped the afternoon session to rest up for the late-night affair. Some players showed up to the fieldhouse around 8 p.m. and watched movies, lifted weights and played video games. Several played for a team called the Best in the 16-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup baseball tournament at Halls Ferry Park.

“Three of them played a baseball game this afternoon. You see where their mind is,” Weaver said as he pointed to a player making a tackle just before 1 a.m. “Our team chemistry is why we’re like this. They like being around each other.”

Weaver wasn’t sure whether PCA’s midnight madness will become an annual tradition. Some fans in attendance, though, felt that it should.

“I hope this is a new tradition. The kids were excited to get here. My boy left the house at 6 o’clock,” said Stephanie Brewer, whose son, Caze, is a senior lineman. “It’s pulling the school together. You’ve got parents that don’t even have kids on the field that are out here.”