About 70 in attendance on first day of practice

Fort Scott High School head coach Bob Campbell gives instruction to players during an offensive drill Monday afternoon. Monday was the first day of practice allowed under Kansas State High School Activities Association rules. The Tigers will have a lawnchair scrimmage Saturday morning and the annual Red & White Scrimmage at Frary Field on Aug. 30 before traveling to Parsons for the season opener Sept. 6. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

About 70 players were in attendance as Fort Scott High School held its first football practice of the 2013 season Monday afternoon.

Because school began Friday, this will be the first time that head coach Bob Campbell won't be able to hold two-a-day practices. That means practices will have to be a bit longer in order to make sure the Tigers get as much pre-season work in as possible.

"It's quite a change," Campbell said. "We're only going to have 13 practices before our first game. It's kind of scary when you have to think of all the things you have to get done in 13 practices. Fortunately, we got a lot of good things done this summer and I think the older kids are up to speed where they need to be."

A few years ago, Kansas eased up on some of the restrictions concerning coaches' contact with athletes during the summer. And a summer like this with a reduced number of practices -- a few days with two-a-days could have resulted in at least four or five extra practices -- that rule change will be a blessing for many schools who won't get in as many practices as they've had in the past.

"In June and the first part of July, you can work with your team," Campbell said. "And every Wednesday morning, we were going to the college -- the community college was good enough to let us use their practice field -- and we were doing a lot of individual, group, and team stuff once a week. And that helped us because, before camp, I felt like we were ahead. And then we went down, after our team camp, to Girard and had a couple of days of scrimmages with Girard and (defending two-time Missouri Class 2 champion) Lamar.

"There's still a lot to get done when you think about your offense, your defense, special teams, in a short amount of time."

The Tigers will have their informal lawn chair scrimmage at the FSHS practice field Saturday morning. The freshmen will start scrimmaging on the north half of the field at 8 a.m. The varsity and JV will begin at 9 a.m. on the south side. The varsity/JV scrimmage typically takes around two hours.

Some sophomores may be sent over to scrimmage with the freshmen on Saturday as those numbers are a bit low, less than 20.

The annual Red & White Scrimmage will be held August 30 at Frary Field. The freshmen take the field at 6 p.m. followed by the varsity/JV at around 7 to 7:15.

The season gets underway as the defending Southeast Kansas League champions travel to Parsons, winless last season, to kick off the season on September 5. Start time at Parsons' Marvel Park is 7 p.m.