Columbus North head coach Logan Haston goes over the next set of drills with players during the first day of football practice at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Aug. 6, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
It was a sizzling hot first day of practice for fall sports as temperatures soared into the 90s on Monday.
School doesn’t begin until Wednesday for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students, but with teachers starting on Monday, most teams practiced in the late afternoon. That included both the Columbus East and Columbus North football teams.
“It’s really hot, and it’s going to be hot Week 1,” North football coach Logan Haston said. “Typically in a Week 1 game, the team that’s best in condition usually wins that game. So we’re going to attack these next few weeks with some conditioning so we’re ready to go Week 1.”
Football teams will have nearly three weeks of offical practice before the Aug. 23 season openers. East is at home against Bloomington South, and North is at Decatur Central that night.
But like most teams around the state, the Bull Dogs and Olympians have been going at it for most of the summer.
“Back when I played, you didn’t do all the stuff during the summertime,” East football coach Eddie Vogel said. “So there’s not quite as much enthusiasm (now) for that first day of practice. But there’s definitely a feeling, especially by the seniors, that this is their last year of high school football. So there’s definitely some urgency, and the guys cranked it up a little bit.”
Both East, which went 3-7 last season, and North, which went 5-6, had meetings inside before going out onto their turf fields, and both ended their 90-minute practices with conditioning. While on the field, the Bull Dogs also did some drills, including timing with quarterbacks and receivers and a walkthrough with their run scheme.
“It’s mostly a mental day to kind of get everybody back in the swing of things, reviewing some of our culture things and some of our special teams and getting a little bit of drill-work in with offense and defense, but mostly just trying to get everybodys’ minds right and get them back in football mode,” Haston said.
The Olympians worked on fundamentals and special teams.
“I thought the guys worked really hard and got off to a good start,” Vogel said. “With us being able to do as much as we do now during the summertime, there’s not a lot to install at this point, really. It’s kind fine-tuning and figuring out what you’re good at so we can start to focus on that.”
Teams will play preseason scrimmages on Aug. 16. North will host Greenwood, and East will visit Martinsville.
The Bull Dogs played in a few informal scrimmages this summer.
“We had a great summer,” Haston said. “We had a chance to compete against some really good teams, and we feel really good about where we are right now as a program. Obviously, we’re not there yet. That’s what these next few weeks are for, but I’m really satisfied with our progress so far.”
