Sallisaw coach pleased with how Black Diamonds did in first session of Summer Pride

Now that the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association’s “Dead Week,” which took place last week, where no high school athletic event of any kind could take place, is over, it’s full steam ahead into the second session of Summer Pride for all high school athletes which started Monday and will end July 31.

Third-year Sallisaw Black Diamonds football coach Brandon Tyler was pleased with the performance of his team during the June session of Summer Pride.

“I thought it went real good,” Tyler said. “Half of our guys, 40 guys, had 100 percent attendance, and as a team we were right at 90. I thought it went really well those first four weeks. Now the focus is on getting stronger, faster and more conditioned these next six weeks as we go into fall camp (start of football practice on Aug. 11).”

As part of last month’s Summer Pride, the Black Diamonds participated in some 7-on-7s, in which the third-year Sallisaw football coach believed he saw progress made — especially toward the end of June.

“I thought they went good,” Tyler said. “I thought we got better toward the end. During the last two that we had, I thought we started getting our concepts down on both sides, offensively and defensively. I think our kids competed well. I was pleased with how we ended up.”

Now that the second session of Summer Pride has commenced, Tyler believes the most important thing to work on is the players’ conditioning.

“We’ll probably crank up our conditioning a little bit more,” he said. “We want to come into fall camp (start of football practice) in August knowing that we’re in better shape. We want to get stronger in the weight room. We want to keep working hard. We want to try to get into better shape.”

When the second session of Summer Pride ends July 31, the following week — Aug. 4-8 — the Black Diamonds will have their “Max Week” before the start of football practice for the 2025 season on Aug. 11.

“It’s getting here fast,” Tyler said. “Once the Fourth of July gets here, it’s pretty much downhill from there. Six weeks from (this past Monday) we’ll start practice. We have our Zero Week game (at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at Pryor). It’s getting closer by the minute. That’s why we’ve got to continue to prepare as a coaching staff, and get ready mentally and physically (for the new season).”

The 2025 season opener will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at Pryor.