Forget the heat, football practice in full swing

The warm summer temperatures Whidbey Island has experienced in the past few weeks makes the familiar late-September smell of burning leaves and ripening fruit seem like only like a fanciful memory. But fear not football fans, it won’t be long before the advent of the harvest moon and soon drivers will have to scrape a little bit of frost off their windshields before heading to work in the morning.

August 21, 2009 4:16 pm
Veteran Oak Harbor running back Donovan Hunt puts one hand down on the turf to maintain his balance during an offensive drill. Hunt is one of 30 seniors on the Wildcat roster.
Veteran Oak Harbor running back Donovan Hunt puts one hand down on the turf to maintain his balance during an offensive drill. Hunt is one of 30 seniors on the Wildcat roster.

The warm summer temperatures Whidbey Island has experienced in the past few weeks makes the familiar late-September smell of burning leaves and ripening fruit seem like only like a fanciful memory.

But fear not football fans, it won’t be long before the advent of the harvest moon and soon drivers will have to scrape a little bit of frost off their windshields before heading to work in the morning.

Despite the frequent heat, football teams at Oak Harbor and Coupeville high schools are already hard at it preparing for the 2009 season.

The Wildcats and the Wolf Pack got started bright and early Wednesday morning and head coaches Jay Turner and Ron Bagby are both optimistic about giving the fans who pack Wildcat Memorial Stadium and Mickey Clark Field something to cheer about this year.

Both coaches said a key factor is senior leadership.

At Oak Harbor, Turner has 30 seniors on the roster; Bagby has 15 at Coupeville.

Thirty is a strong senior group any way you want to look at it and 15 as opposed to four makes a big difference for the red, black and white.

Both teams were exceptionally young last year, as their records indicated. Oak Harbor finished 4-6 while Coupeville failed to win a game, going 0-10.

This season is going to be different.

You can feel the difference just stepping onto the field during an early-season practice session. You notice a spring in the players’ steps, a look of confidence on their faces and the enthusiasm sparks enough electricity to make field lights almost unnecessary.

“The enthusiasm has been tremendous and we have our seniors to thank for that,” Turner said. “Everybody is hustling and getting ready to go.”

Bagby said the Wolves had a good summer camp and the majority of their position players were able to attend.

“We have all our skill-position players returning to the team this year and we got a lot of work done at the camp,” he said.

Both teams will have a few new “wrinkles” on both sides of the ball this season that should result in a lot of points being put on the board by the offensive teams, while the defensive units hope to cause all kinds of frustration when the opposition is in possession of the ball.

Oak Harbor assistant coach Craig Nurvic said it best. “We don’t plan on punting the ball very much this year because we are going to score a lot of points. We’ll spend more of our time working on kicking extra points and kicking off,” he said.

Both teams open the season Friday, Sept. 4.

Oak Harbor travels to Cascade with kickoff slated for a 7 p.m. and Coupeville hosts Port Townsend at 6:30.