With the start of preseason football practice for the 2023 season getting underway Monday, the local coaches have different objectives and goals they want to achieve during the first week.
“The simple answer to that is to get them acclimated to the heat,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “We had a really good spring ball sessions. Our camps were good. Our 7-on-7 passing league was good for us. A lot of what we want to install and what we want to have come zero week is already in place. There’s still some things to work on, but the vast majority of who we are as a team has already been installed. This first week is really about cleaning up some of the messes we saw in our camp and in our 7-on-7 this summer, then it’s getting these kids acclimated to the heat. We really have a great group of kids. We had 93 percent of our team here every day (during summer workouts), so they’re pretty much acclimated to the heat. But again, it’s a lot different when you’re getting ready to put pads on and endure a twohour practice versus a 45-minute conditioning session.”
“Our first couple of days, Monday and Tuesday for sure, we want to run our boys through some basic stuff again — not necessarily pertaining to our offense or defense — but things like the fundamentals of tackling, blocking, catching the ball, holding on to the football — retouching all that stuff,” Roland coach Austin Cantrell said. “Then, turn around and do our offense and defense plays, our pass protection and maybe a passing play or two. The most we can do without pads on. Really the first day for sure will be just the fundamental stuff and getting the feel back for it.”
“The first thing is we have to get acclimated to the heat,” Central coach Jeremy Thompson said. “We have to start making sure we’re getting in shape. We’re going to work on our base offense and defense. We want to make sure we’re fundamentally sound. Those are the keys at the beginning of the year. We want to get ready for our scrimmages. We want to make sure we’re ready when we go into scrimmage No. 1 (vs. Keys (Park Hill) at 6 p.m. Aug. 18) and scrimmage No. 2 (6 p.m. Aug. 25 vs. Morris). Then, it’s game time. There’s a lot to get in during these next two weeks.”
“This first week, we’re just going to focus getting their bodies back into shape,” Gans coach Brian Morton said. “I know these boys don’t do a lot during the summer. We have quite a few boys that work, and work outside, but I also know some work indoors under air conditioning. So, we’ll use this week to get some heat acclimation going, some conditioning and pick up where we left off last season in terms of our Xs and Os.”
Muldrow Games in Broken Arrow Tournament
Friday – Muldrow vs. OKC Putnam City North, 1:40 p.m. – Muldrow vs. Pryor, 3:20 p.m. – Muldrow vs. Dewey, 7 p.m. Sat urday – Muldrow vs. Edmond Memorial, 11:40 a.m. – Trophy Game, TBA.
