Highlands High School

Ty Boler and Will Todd|April 25, 2022 The first day we strap on the pads and buckle the helmets, everybody is excited about the new season. We start off with an Oklahoma drill to start spring off right. Ten random days in April to everyone else are the most important for the Highlands High School football players. For those players, spring represents a time to refine techniques and show improvement on the field in hopes of securing a major role heading into the fall. The first day of spring ball practice starts Monday, April 11 which is the day used for everyone to get the format down with the 24 periods that go into in-season practice. The true first full-pad day is April 12 which is a full go. We practice from 6:30 A.M. to 7:30 A.M. on school days, then we go into our fieldwork after school, from around 3:30 P.M. to 6:30 or 7:00 P.M., which includes every skill on the field from defense to offense, passing game to tackling drills, and that’s just a few things in the routine of our 24-period practice. We practice during the spring to basically just perfect our skills during the off-season so we can play the best football we can perform during our regular season and June-July with our 7v7 ball, along with our scrimmages. The goals of spring ball are to get better and more efficient as a whole and be able to play the best football that we can. This year, the team has a total of only three scrimmages. To give the season a quick debut on what weapons we have and to show how hard we are going to compete: The teams we play are pretty good competition which is our blue vs white scrimmage, against Louisville Male and Ryle Raiders. As a player, I’m excited to see the new talent with the younger classes playing up and just seeing what they can do to make the 22’-23′ season better. These are some views of other athletes on the team that are participating in spring ball and the 23’ season. Sophomore Matteo Matteoli said, “I’ve had many spring ball experiences the past two years but the best for sure is when the coach told me I did something wrong one time and when I went out again I did it perfectly and he was very proud.” “During this year’s practices, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs but that’s just a part of the process for our younger guys,” said Junior Charlie Noon. These two athletes have two good points of view on what’s going to happen because they both have seen the ups and downs of HHS football in the past few years.