Practice makes perfect

High school athletes start another campaign

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN Senior Jamie Thorne, center, goofs around with his Chopticon cross country teammates as the fall sports season gets started. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

With new rules changing the high school practice start date to the sixth Saturday after the first full week of July for public schools, the first day this year fell on Saturday. And at each school, practice was in full swing as teams attempted to prepare for long seasons still full of promise.

At Great Mills, head football coach Bill Griffith began his practice at 7 a.m., hoping to wash away his team’s misfortunes from last season after a 0-10 finish. Fortunately for Griffith, the first practice of the season always brings new hope for the upcoming year and his squad was no different.

‘‘It’s been a while,” said Griffith. ‘‘It’s exciting. It’s a little rough getting up as early as we did, but as soon as we walked out the door, we were ready to go. The kids are excited, the coaches are excited; we didn’t even have to put the kids in their lines. They were already set up and ready to go.”

With a winless team returning from last season, many may overlook Great Mills. But the team still has talent, and although senior Aaron Rodenizer was excited to be back at practice, he is also starting to feel the pressure to erase the program’s previous shortcomings.

‘‘There are a lot of kids out here,” said Rodenizer. ‘‘With a season like we had last year, with this many kids out here, it shows that people want to get the program back up.”

At Leonardtown, the girls soccer team finished an impressive 14-3 last season, but failed to repeat as state champion, losing in the Class 4A regional championship to Severna Park.

Although the program lost seven seniors from last season’s team, its first day of practice on Saturday was an exciting chance for head coach Jennifer Henderson to figure out which pieces to add to her new puzzle of players.

‘‘I’m really excited to be out here,” said Henderson. ‘‘August 16 was a day I was looking forward to for a while. We have a great turnout this year, approximately 50 players. We have a good quality group of players out here.”

For Jessica Cooke, a Leonardtown senior, the first practice of the year was a much anticipated event, something she had been looking forward to since the end of last season.

‘‘I was disappointed we didn’t get farther last season,” said Cook. ‘‘I’ve been anticipating getting back all year. I’m really excited to get back.”

At Chopticon, it was much the same story.

Senior starting quarterback Leo Kyte said he had been waiting since the last snap of last season for the first practice of the 2008 campaign. And although head coach Tony Lisanti admitted the first practice was a little chaotic, mostly due to some technical malfunctions that disrupted practice, he also admitted to being anxious to get the practice season started.

‘‘The first day is never fun,” said Lisanti. ‘‘But you’ve got to work the kinks out. I like a lot of what I have, but we have a long way to go.”

One thought on most of the coach’s minds this season was the new start date, a cause for concern for some. Some of the coaches noted the shorter practice schedule, not only in days but total number of practices. While Griffith worried about added injuries from the smaller conditioning time, Henderson noted an important strategic problem that will put her team at a disadvantage with other schools throughout the state.

‘‘We have a lot less time in the preseason this year, because the teachers are already back to work,” said Henderson, who said the later teacher start date for some of Leonardtown’s out-of-conference opponents will leave the Raiders at a disadvantage. ‘‘In the past, I’ve always had two sessions a day for tryouts and then as schools starts, we would cut back to the one practice a day. This year, I can’t do two-a-day sessions, because I have to be at work from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

Still, regardless of the new schedule, it’s clear that each of the county’s young athletes were ready to get the season started and let the summer-long anxiety wash away.

‘‘It feels nice because we get to move on from last year and show that we can make it to the playoffs,” said Jordan Butler, a senior nose guard at Chopticon. Chopticon finished 6-5 last season, losing to Lackey in the first round of the playoffs. ‘‘We’ve been working hard so that we can have a better start and keep going up.”