PHOTOS: Windermere High football's first fall practice -- Observer Preps

HORIZON WEST While the Windermere Wolverines football team has been gathering and working together through the spring and the summer, in preparation of the program's debut season this fall, there was something different about when the players and coaches got together Monday afternoon for the team's first official practice of the fall.

Just ask head coach Greg Miller.

"I didn't sleep all night — it's like back to when I played, just getting those first-day jitters," Miller said. "I told the kids before we came out here that this is a special moment and that we needed to come out here and represent the school well."

If Miller was tired, he sure didn't look it early Monday evening as the Wolverines worked through their drills on the day the FHSAA recognizes as the beginning of the fall season.

After a spring in which the program had to practice on an open field adjacent to Lifebridge Church in Horizon West, it was nice for the program to get some work in on its very own practice field.

"It's good to have a home," Miller said.

That home includes not only the team's practice field, which lines the southwest corner of the school's spanking new campus along Winter Garden Vineland Road, but also a brand new weight room and other perks that had players like sophomore defensive back Seth Daniels excited to hit the field.

"It was great — I love having the field and the facilities," Daniels said. "The energy was great. We're all excited to get out here and be part of the new school and the new team."

As for the practice itself, Miller said the storms did disrupt what the team had intended to accomplish on Day One, but that the staff and the players were able to make the best of it, anyway.

"We had to make some adjustments to the practice schedule and we didn't get as much time time out here on the field as we wanted to," Miller said.  "But, I think that for an hour-and-a-half we got out here and practiced and we were able as coaches to start to kind of instill what it is that we want for practices during the season."

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].