Football offseason ends as practice starts for area squads

The first day of football practice isn’t what it used to be. And that’s a good thing, area high school coaches say.

Monday signaled the official end of the offseason for prep squads as preseason practice began with two-a-days. But in actuality, teams have already gotten through much of the legwork typically associated with the season’s opening sessions thanks to a 2-year-old rule change.

In 2010, the Missouri State High School Activities Association implemented a a rule that allows high school teams in all sports 25 contact days to work together. The third time through, coaches say they’re getting the hang of how to best utilize those get-togethers.

“We have a camp the last week of July and (the first practice) is really kind of a carry over,” said Greg Oder, coach of defending Class 6 state champ Blue Springs South. “We spent today reviewing what we did that week. It would be one thing if I hadn’t done much. But 25 days gives you a lot of time.”

At Fort Osage, coach Ryan Schartz said this was the first year his program took advantage of all 25 contact days. The Indians elected to scratch their typical seven-on-seven workouts and focused more on team camps. They attended one at Blue Springs and another at Raytown South. Over the summer, they scrimmaged against eight different opponents.

The benefits have been multi-pronged.

“It’s so much easier,” Schartz said. “We’re way ahead of where we’ve ever been just because of new rules. We used to always have to get acclimated to the weather in the one- or two-week team camps the last weeks of July. Now it seems like it’s football year-round every year.”

Most teams elected to hold two practice sessions in the morning, finishing up around 12:30. But at William Chrisman, coach John Crutcher brought his guys in around dawn and again at 6 p.m.

“One of the biggest things is our first game is at 7:30,” Crutcher said. “So we’re trying to get kids used to that. It’s a little cooler in the morning so we can condition a little harder in the morning too.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the teams caught a break from the summer’s scorching weather as the temperatures remained in the low 90s after a string of 100-degree days in recent weeks. Schartz joked that it was even a little chilly as he opened up the multipurpose room.

Things were expected to heat back up today, but for the most part, the week’s forecast looks favorable with highs in the low 80s projected later in the week.

“We had all kinds of plans in place in case it didn’t break,” said Truman coach Jeff Floyd. “But we were able to go back to what our basic schedule is and didn’t have to push things back to later in the evening.”

The Patriots are also a little further ahead of schedule, Floyd said, because he’s working with a large senior class that has been gradually taking control of the program for the past few years.

“This year’s senior class is a really good class and a lot of them have been playing since sophomores so they’ve already had a couple years on varsity,” Floyd said. “We don’t really have a lot of depth so staying healthy is important for us, but that can be said for everybody.”