Football season began Monday for some Fort Worth-area teams
Football season kicked off bright and early Monday morning for some Tarrant County schools, even earlier at Kennedale and North Crowley.
Those teams hit the field at 12:01 a.m. Monday. Everman and Fort Worth schools Arlington Heights, Carter-Riverside and Polytechnic waited until first light.
Conditioning drills and non-contact team instruction make up most of the two- to three-hour sessions until Friday. That’s when players don shoulders pads and the full-contact drills begin.
The regular season starts Aug. 27-29.
Who’s ready, who isn’t
At Fort Worth Arlington Heights, 76 varsity and junior varsity players kicked off the 2015 season with a 7:30 a.m. conditioning test.
Players had to sprint the width of the football field and back (approximately 106 yards) 15 times in less than 21.99 seconds per sprint for the linemen. Players had 45 seconds of rest between sprints.
“I love me some work. Let’s go!” senior defensive lineman Zach Perry shouted between sprints. “That’s the pain. I know what it feels like. You gotta fight through.”
Perry said he missed only two workouts all summer, and he did beat the time.
“I was as ready as a lineman could be,” he said. “We’re not exactly the skinniest guys.”
Players who didn’t meet the standard have about two weeks to pass the conditioning test.
“The older ones, about 90 percent will pass,” Heights coach Phil Young said. “The younger ones, about 60 percent. It takes them a little longer until they get things figured out.”
Heights principal Sarah Weeks even attended Monday’s workout, and said she’d be there for Tuesday and Wednesday’s 6:45 a.m. sessions as well.
Some players had to wait before they could take the field: “Mom’s filling [the forms] out online right now,” sophomore Jaden Wynn said. “She’s on page 4.”
— Eric Zarate
Setting bar high
Before last season, Kierre Crossley had only heard about Everman’s 2002 and 2003 state championships. Even state semifinal appearances in 2007 and 2008 were becoming a distant memory.
Then the Bulldogs went on a 2014 run of their own, reaching the Class 5A Division II state quarterfinals. With half of the 32 seniors already two-year starters, Monday began with lofty expectations.
“State championship, that’s it,” said Crossley, who rushed for 3,153 yards and 36 touchdowns last year. “Last year, we went deeper than anybody expected. It proved to us how good we really are.”
Coach Dale Keeling hopes last year’s results will trigger more consistent focus throughout the season. But in ultra-competitive District 8-5A, led last year by state champion Aledo, Keeling also knows some self-belief won’t hurt, either.
“It may be over-confident sometimes,” Keeling said, “but it’s better than having no confidence.”
— Ryan Osborne
Early Wildcats
For the 15th straight year, Kennedale celebrated the beginning of football season by hosting a midnight madness practice Monday morning.
Players crowded around the doors to the locker room before midnight, shouting team chants before they were let in seconds after the clock struck 12.
After putting on practice gear, the Wildcats trained for just under two hours in front of an estimated 100 fans who spread out throughout the stands of Wildcat Stadium.
To head coach Richard Barrett, the practice ceremoniously makes the program the first in Texas to hit the field.
— Travis L. Brown
Turf adds new twist
Fort Worth Polytechnic is one of a handful of city schools breaking in a new artificial turf practice field, and the Parrots got their first extensive work on the surface Monday.
The Fort Worth district approved turf fields in the off-season for schools that didn’t have them.
Poly coach Chris Roberts said he and his players already notice a difference. The surface is softer and more level than the old grass field, which hardened in the heat and turned into a mud pit whenever it rained.
The main adjustment, at least for the next month, will be acclimating to the hotter on-field temperature, Roberts said.
Normally, Poly schedules four water breaks for a three-hour practice. Roberts said he’s going to increase that the rest of the week, along with keeping water bottles nearby during drills.
“We’re going to water as we go,” Roberts said. “We want our student trainers to be around at all times. If he wants water, he can drink. We’re never going to tell a kid no.”
— Ryan Osborne
Turf awaits
At Fort Worth Carter-Riverside, players hit the grass field near the front of the school, while the final touches are going in on the Eagles’ new turf field at the back of the campus.
“We’re making sure they have all the paperwork in, going slow here,” coach Jim Jeffries said. “We get the field next week, then we’ll be ready to go.”
Jeffries cut short a morning classroom session about formations.
“We supposed to be doing some plays inside,” he said. “I was so excited, I did my pre-practice speech and we ran outside.”
— Eric Zarate
Night shift
Fort Worth South Hills opted for an evening practice Monday, with JV and varsity players hitting their new artificial turf field around 6:15 p.m.
The Scorpions’ freshman team practiced at 5, while the upperclassmen lifted, watched film and checked out equipment.
Among those returning for South Hills is junior quarterback Tracin Wallace, who combined for more than 50 touchdowns last year when South Hills went 9-2. The Scorpions lost in the first round of the playoffs to Burleson.
Wallace worked through a series of footwork and throwing drills early in the practice before moving into a team session, where one of his targets was twin brother, Tylan Wallace.
Both Wallaces received five Division I offers in the off-season: Oklahoma State, SMU, Tulsa, Vanderbilt and SMU. Tylan Wallace caught 11 touchdown passes last year.
He also worked some Monday at defensive back, where he could play this year.
South Hills opens the regular season Aug. 28 against Joshua at Scarborough-Handley Field in Fort Worth.
— Ryan Osborne
This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Football season began Monday for some Fort Worth-area teams."