- High school football practices start Monday for area teams. Garden City, Grady, Stanton, and Greenwood will all take the field for the first time on Monday for a week or practices.
According to UIL regulations, football players will not be allowed any contact equipment other than their helmet and cannot participate in any contact drills. The first week is for acclimation purposes.
The Garden City Bearkats are led by Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator Jeff Jones and Defensive Coordinator Ollie Wilburn.
Garden City will run their typical hard nosed Bearkat Jay Option offense and will base the defense out of a 3-1-2.
First week expectation, “Mainly we want to start getting into shape,” stated Jones. “We want to be as well conditioned heading into game one as we can. We also have a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball so we are excited to watch the guys gel into a new team.”
The Bearkat’s practices are open to the public and will start at 8 a.m. and go to 11 a.m. the first week. The second week of practices will be run in the afternoon.
Scrimmages for Garden City will be Aug. 11 in Ira at 5 p.m. and Aug. 18 against Highland in Garden City at 5 p.m.
The season will start Aug. 24 versus Jayton in Jayton at 8 p.m.
The Grady Wildcats are led by Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator Jourmain Matta and Defensive Coordinator Brett Glaze.
Grady will continue to run it’s Unbalanced Veer offense with a couple added wrinkles that started working well towards the end of last season. Defensively the Wildcats expect to run a 3-2-1 base defense but could change depending on personnel.
The first week of practices will start on the field at 8:30 a.m. and run till 10:30 a.m. Then the Wildcats will hit the weight room to push some iron. All practices are open to anyone that would like to watch.
Grady will be working a lot on fundamentals such as blocking, tackling, throwing, and catching. They will also work on the basics of the offense and defense.
“I’m very excited about starting my third year at Grady and I am looking forward to a great year,” stated Matta. “We are in one of the toughest districts int he state and we have improved greatly as a football team. We competed very well during the district season last year and we are looking to carry on some of that momentum into this year.”
Scrimmages for Grady will be on Aug. 11 at home against Holy Cross at 5:30 p.m. and Aug. 18 in Wilson versus Wilson and Lubbock Titans. Time to be determined. The Stanton Buffaloes will be led this season by first year Head Coach Billy Rushing.
The Buffaloes will be on the field bright and early at 7:30 a.m. and continue until 9:30 a.m. From 10 - 11 a.m. the Buffs will be getting stronger in the weight room.
Stanton will stay at home for its first scrimmage on Aug. 11 against Slaton at 6 p.m. The Buffs will hit the road on Aug. 17 to scrimmage Lamesa in Lamesa at 6 p.m.
And finally, the Greenwood Rangers will be led by first year Head Coach Bryan Hill. He will be joined by Offensive Coordinator Victor Gill and Defensive Coordinator Markelle Martin. “This is my fourth coaching stop with Coach Gill and second with Coach Martin. Gill played offensive line at the University of North Texas while Martin played safety at Oklahoma State University,” stated Hill.”
Greenwood will run a spread temps offense with a downhill running game and stretching the field vertically with the passing game, while the defense will be stacked 4-2-5 with multiple fronts and coverages.
“In our first week of practice we are looking to place a big emphasis on fundamental football. For us, the first week is always about working on blocking, tackling, and running to the football. A premium will be placed on learning our new offensive and defensive systems. We will stress effort and enthusiasm in getting lined up and playing with a sense of urgency,” said Hill.
Practices will last two hours until the first day of school, then the format changes a little bit. The Rangers will practice one side of the ball for the first hour and the other side of the ball in the second hour. Practices are open to the public but it requested that anyone looking to film any part of practice checks with Coach Hill before starting any recording.
Greenwood’s first scrimmage will be Aug. 11 at home against Big Spring at and the second scrimmage will be Aug. 17 also at home against Denver City.