Wildcats enjoy energetic first day of practice

Monday’s overcast afternoon left no worries about the heat at El Dorado High School, where the Wildcats opened up practice. Coach Steven Jones said his troops gathered from 3:30 p.m. until walking off the field at approximately 7:10 p.m.

“We came in at 3:30. We lifted. We went through team meetings, position meetings and then we hit the field about five,” Jones said. “We were on the field for a little less than two hours. We took three periods of breaks. Overall, we had a pretty full practice. We did a lot of individual stuff and then we looked at kickoff. We did a lot of kickoff drills today, just trying to identify who can run and cover on that. We installed our extra point today. We went through that unit.”

Jones said the team hasn’t selected a kickoff man nor a starting place kicker.

“Don’t know, yet. We’ve got a couple of options,” he answered.

Defensive coordinator Trey Outlaw talked about that side of the ball.

“We had a good day. It was fun to get back out after having three days off. It felt like another day of summer even though it wasn’t. We’ve been rocking and rolling since June,” said Outlaw. “It’s crazy we have to do these acclimation periods when our guys have been acclimated since early June. It was just status quo for our guys.

“We started off with some individual periods and then did a little inside work with the offensive line where we used our linebackers to get some run fits off of the guards and tackles. Our secondary guys worked some 2-on-2 on the goal line against receivers.”

Outlaw said practice ended with a competitive session on the goal line.

"Mario (Ganter) had a beautiful interception, got both feet in," he said. "It was one that I think he needs to put on his highlight reel for sure."

After suffocating heat a week ago, the weather cooperated nicely on Monday.

“Man, it was perfect out there. The energy was great because of that,” said Jones. “This was, as far as I can tell, the best energy that I’ve seen at a practice since I’ve been here. There was a lot of enthusiasm out there. The kids were flying around and having fun. We had a good time out there today.

“It was one of the best practices I’ve been involved with here, just with the energy and enthusiasm and just the excitement for the 2021 season. It was a great day one. We had a lot of fun.”

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