Eighty-eight take part in first day of practice

Fort Scott High School senior quarterback Aaron Judy rolls out as he runs a passing play on the first day of practice Monday evening. The Tigers will hold their lawnchair scrimmage on the FSHS practice field Saturday morning. The regular season begnis at Nevada on Sept. 5. (Tribune photo/Scott Nuzum)

There were 88 football players on the Fort Scott High School practice field Monday evening as fall sports were finally allowed to begin formal practices under the rules of the Kansas State High School Activities Association.

"I've had goose bumps for the last 24 hours," FSHS third-year head coach Don Epps said. "I woke up this morning and thought, 'This is it; this is what we live for.' I'm excited for the players.

"There's a feeling you get when you're getting ready for something great and that's how we feel right now."

Because the school year has already started, the Tigers will not be able to get in two-a-day workouts in the first few days as had been the case in the past. At least they did catch one break, working out on an 80-degree evening as opposed to the usual 90-degree, high-humidly evenings.

The Tigers worked on offense and punt coverage during Monday's practice. Defense was on the agenda for Tuesday.

"We are replacing a lot of starters on defense this year," Epps said. "So it's going to be interesting because every job is open right now. (Tuesday) is going to be the first day we put the pressure on to see who's going to take those spots on defense. The next defensive practice (after this) will be the first one with pads. So there's not much room for error."

The Tigers only get to practice once a day and have a couple of scrimmages before their season opener against Nevada on Sept. 5. Nevada, however, gets to have an extra week of practice, have a "jamboree" at Butler, Mo., this Friday night with three other schools and open the season a week earlier, going to Bolivar on Aug. 29.

"We feel the pressure to really work hard and fast this year because of the lack of true two-a-days like we've had in the past," Epps said. "The kids understand that. Our seniors have done a good job of leading things.

"We're looking forward to playing Nevada. They're going to have a great atmosphere and a great program to play against. It's going to be a fun game."

Nevada gets to start its season earlier because Missouri has a 10-game regular season and has finally decided to allow a second team to advance from district play -- Kansas has been doing that for several years -- which means there's an extra round of playoffs. Missouri chose to start the season a week earlier instead of having its state championship games in December.

This means Fort Scott will have to get into game shape quickly and be able to deal with a team that has already experienced it's opening-game jitters

"The kids are excited and they're working hard," Epps said. "I feel we're in very good shape right now.

"The big thing is to make sure we align and assign and play fundamental football," Epps says. "If we can't do those things, we can't beat our opponents."

With the need to get into game shape in fewer practices, Epps chose to hold the Tigers' summer camp later this year than usual. This, he feels, will help the team pick things up since they've worked on them recently.

"We moved our camp to the very last week we could this year because of that," Epps said, "With that, I felt like we wanted to pick up where we left off with camp and I think we did that."

The informal lawnchair scrimmage will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday on the practice field just east of the high school. The freshmen will scrimmage first followed by the combined varsity/junior varsity.

The annual Red & White Scrimmage will be held Aug. 29 at Frary Field. The freshmen will be first again at 6 p.m. followed by the varsity/JV.

Right now, Epps is happy to get out onto a football field.

"The bottom line is the grass is green and it's cool," Epps sad. "We don't want to be anywhere else right now."

Sept. 5........at Nevada

Sept. 12.......at Independence

Oct. 30........CHANUTE