Eighty-five young men came out for the Rockdale Tigers’ first practice of the 2019 season.
“Honestly, I loved the intensity and I loved the effort,” said Jeff Miller, Rockdale High School head football coach and athletic director. “This has been an anticipated event and it certainly didn’t disapoint.”
RHS coaches focused on conditioning but also getting kids familiar with their potential roles on their respective teams.
“We started off with the three-man weave drills,” Miller said. “Then we eventually did individual position work.
“Towards the end we did a lot of conditioning.”
Miller also said that the beginning of the season also means that many questions need to be answered.
“We have a lot of spaces to fill from guys who graduated last year,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of questions on both sides of the ball that we need to answer within the next three or four weeks.”
Rockdale looks to fill spots on both the offensive and defensive line where they lost Doss Hasselbach, Preston Debault, Josh Davenport, Cayden McBride and Carson Offi eld.
They will also need to replace Will Storey and Nathan Newlin, who were a big part of the Tigers secondary for the last couple of years. Receiver Quentin Hughes and linebacker Jackson Perry also leave big holes for Miller to fill before their season opener on Friday, Aug. 30, against Giddings at Tiger Stadium.
SCRIMMAGE—Rock-dale plays in their first scrimmage on Friday, Aug. 16, at home against Groesbeck at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers also play at home on Thursday, Aug. 22, in a scrimmage with Mexia before their season opener the following week.
MILANO—MHS head football coach Chad Lagrone and 31 Milano Eagles had their first practice of the season at Pruitt Field on Monday morning.
“We focused on fundamentals and conditioning on Monday,” Lagrone said. “We also worked on offense.”
The Eagles have another week of practice before they host Anderson-Shiro on Friday, Aug. 23, for their first scrimmage.
Milano plays their season opener the following week when they face the Grapeland Sandies, Texas Football’s fifth ranked team in Class 2A-Division II football.
THORNDALE—The Thorndale Bulldogs kicked off their season Monday morning with 31 boys at their first practice.
“It wasn’t bad for a first day,” said Scott Hawkins, THS head football coach and athletic director. “It was strictly defense and conditioning.
“Kids were enthusiastic, but we did have some young men realize that not doing conditioning over the summer was a bad idea.”
The Bulldogs will practice every day except for Sunday from 7-9 a.m., until Wednesday, Aug. 14, TISD’s first day of school.
The ‘Dawgs have their first scrimmage in Center-ville on Friday, Aug. 16, at 6 p.m. The Bulldogs open their season two weeks later on Friday, Aug. 30, in Florence. THS didn’t face the class 3A Buffaloes last season and were added to the schedule this year as a result of Chilton canceling their 2018 opener with the Bulldogs a month prior to the game.
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