It was a typical first week of football practice for French Camp Football Coach Nathan Wright.
Wright said he spent a good part of the week getting new players ready for practice and doing a lot of teaching.
“I thought we had a good week,” Wright said. “Maybe we have everybody here now so that’s always helpful. Dealing with dorm guys and you have things you have to do there. Even when they get here, there are things you have to take care of. Some of them might not have the right paperwork or physicals and you are always dealing with that. I think we have everybody now and all of their paperwork. We should have everybody in shoulder pads today and that will help. But it was a good week of learning and trying to get stuff in quickly.”
Wright said he had 31 players out as of Friday.
“The one positive is we have the guys here who are going to make up the team,” Wright said. “We can start getting more serious now with practice. Then we have to deal with the coronavirus. Nanih Waiya has already called and canceled their junior high game next week. That part of it is not going to be fun.”
Wright said he would know a lot more about this year’s team after this week of practice.
“We need a good week of contact and we haven’t had that,” Wright said. “That’s what we have to do this week. That’s going to push a lot of kids away that might have been on the edge. You have to recognize that part of the game. Sometimes they are in the honeymoon period and have hung around. But when the hitting starts and it gets more serious, some will fold the tent. We will know who we are going to play with after this week. It’s going to get more physical this week and we will try to play a real game.”
The Panthers will not scrimmage this week and will open the season on Aug. 27 against Winona Christian.
