Back to work: Area football programs return to practice field

WEST ORANGE — As varsity football increasingly becomes a year-round sport — with spring football, 7-on-7 passing leagues in the summer and the strength and conditioning sessions that follow — it raises the question: Does the first day of fall camp retain its significance?

It certainly seems so.

“It’s the intensity,” Foundation Academy head coach Brad Lord said as his Lions ran through drills on Monday afternoon. “They know the season is here; it’s upon them.”

And so, with Aug. 3 being the first day that high-school football teams were allowed to begin fall camp per the FHSAA, seven of the coverage area’s eight programs took to the practice field despite some wet conditions. CFCA began its fall camp the following day.

Although hopes are high and the excitement was palpable at each program’s respective first practice, it is an especially exciting time for programs such as Dr. Phillips and West Orange. The two playoff teams from a season ago, who will meet one another Sept. 11 in Winter Garden, each enter the season with a boatload of returning starters with Division I scholarship offers or interest and expectations that this could be the year.

“We’re through the roof; we’re excited,” West Orange head coach Bob Head said. “The expectations we have on ourselves are so high — you have no idea.”

Practices through Friday are non-contact, per the FHSAA, with most teams donning just helmets the first few days and moving to shells — pads with no contact — later in the week. Though the hitting won’t begin until Saturday morning, there is plenty for programs to accomplish in the meantime.

“A lot of brainwork goes on the first three days,” Lord said. “We’re more into brainwork, getting a lot of our install in and getting them moving.”

One challenge that the larger classification schools encounter during the first few practice sessions, before the varsity and junior varsity teams are cemented and practicing separately, is managing high numbers. Class 8A programs such as West Orange, Dr. Phillips and Olympia will have at least 60 players on the practice field and, in some cases, as many as 100.

“We just have to make sure we’re organized and we keep the kids moving,” Head said, explaining how the staff at West Orange handles the surge in participation at the beginning of the season. “I don’t want anybody standing around.”

Although every team comes into camp with a good idea of where the depth charts stand in terms of skill players, fall camp is still a chance for players to work their way into the playing rotation and even the starting lineup. Lord said the first three weeks will give players who maybe were not around during the summer or are transfers to show what they can do and that he is open to making changes in the depth chart even following his team’s preseason contest.

“We use our classic a lot to evaluate,” Lord said.

The first Friday of the 2015 regular season is Aug. 28.