High school football season is underway as many teams around the Garden State held their first practices Wednesday.

The Piscataway High School Chiefs say that the practice is the first step to remaining undefeated state champions.

“Last year we had a great season – 13-0 - one of the best seasons in school history since they added the bowl game,” says head coach Dan Higgins. “We graduated a whole bunch of seniors out of that team, but the way that they played and how they played and represented, I think sets the tone for this season.”

Higgins will have to coach a much different team for the 2019 season. Only four starting players are returning this year.

“We always go best on best, so a lot of these kids scrimmaged every day against that 13-0 team. It's a lot of fun to build a team when you don't have a lot of returning pieces,” Higgins says. “There's just a lot more teaching and coaching on situations.”

The team says that in order to remain undefeated they will need to rely on senior leadership out on the field – on players like receiver Marcel Walker.

“It's a lot of rebuilding, a lot of fresh players going around,” Walker says. “I just have to be a good leader, make sure I coach everybody up and be the best person and best player I can.”

Twins Kristopher and Khristan Hernandez says that they will also step up. They say that no matter who is on the field, they all have the same fighting mentality.

“We've got good chemistry. We all played with each other for a long time so we all know each other, so that's our strength,” Kristopher says.

“We’ve got a lot on our shoulders and we've just got to leave everything in the past,” says Khristan. “We’ve got a new team so we've just got to rebuild and hopefully we get back to MetLife [Stadium] once again, go back to back.”

Opening day for high school football is set for Sept. 6.