Football coaches want to accomplish different things in Week 1 of practice

As the first week of high school practice for the 2024 season arrives Monday, the local coaches have different things they hope to get accomplished in Week 1.

Some just want to polish up on what was done in spring practice and Summer Pride.

“We want to repeat our install (of offense and defense) from the spring,” Vian coach Gary Willis said. “We want to get our base offense going. We’ve been working out, but since spring we haven’t been able to run any plays. We just want to get to our base offense and get really crisp at it. Hopefully, it’s a good continuation from putting it in this spring. There will be acclimation to the weather. It’s going to be a little different in pads, but we’ve had them out in the heat all summer. We don’t expect that (heat-related issues) to be too much of a thing for the guys who were here.”

The majority of the local coaches want to use Week 1 of practice to get acclimated to the weather — namely the hot temperatures — as well as other key issues.

“We want to get acclimated to the heat and be able to practice in the middle of the day,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said. “All our Summer Pride was done early in the morning when it wasn’t as hot. We need to get acclimated to this heat this first week. With all the returning starters we have coming back on offense, we can kind of tweak a few things there and add a few more things — especially in the passing game. Defensively, we really can’t do a whole lot until we get the pads on Friday (Aug. 16). We’ll be looking for a couple of linebackers and secondary guys we have to replace. Defensively, we were hit a little bit harder (by graduation) than we were offensively, but we have guys who are very capable of filling those spots.”

“Conditioning and getting acclimated to the weather will be big ones,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said. “Everybody will be back in school, so we can get on ‘school time.’ We put in some stuff this spring, and we worked on it all summer, so we’re just going to put the puzzle pieces together. We know what we are. We know where we want to be at, but, when you don’t have a true solid practice, you can see all of that develop. That’s what we’re excited for.”

For a couple of local coaches, it’s all about getting the players into football shape.

“We’re going to focus on getting in shape,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “The one thing I learned early on in my coaching career and heard from numerous mentors is that you win the first two or three ball games by being the most in-shape team. This is a big part of what we’re going to be focusing on. Our kids have done a great job showing up and being here all summer. As long as we can continue to stay in shape with this heat the way it is in Oklahoma, we’ve got a good chance of having success and being in shape the way we need to be.”

“We need to get guys ready to play four quarters of football,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “You’re looking at three weeks of practice time to get prepared to play a game. There’s a whole lot to cover in those three weeks to be ready to play. It’s very important that we’re detailed in everything that we’re doing, and getting ready for that (season opener).”

The local 8-man football coaches are going to use Week 1 of practice to see what players can play at what positions.

“We won’t know who goes where until we see all the kids,” first-year Gans coach Gary Hixon said. “We’re excited about that. We’ll find out where everybody goes. We want to put the best eight out there we can. To do that, we need to see where we’re at physically and mentally, and see how well we handle the heat. We need to install our offense. I want to get our kids used to our terminology, and that goes for our offense and defense. After we establish where the players go, then we’ll see what else we can do to polish what we’ve learned so far. I want to run a handful of running and passing plays, and have our defense be ready to deal with multiple situations that can occur. We want to be as sharp as we can, and be ready to deal with the heat.”

“We have to solidify and figure out who we think our candidates are for a couple of offensive lineman,” Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said. “We know who our quarterback, running backs and receivers are going to be. We just have to find a couple of guards or a center. We have to figure out who to put there, and getting those guys ready.”