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The 2009 high school football season officially kicked off with practice,
Tuesday morning, across the state of Oklahoma, including in Guthrie, but with a
delay.
The Oklahoma sky opened up over Guthrie producing 3.09 inches of rain and a
thunder storm with lighting caused about an hour delay to the start of practice.
"It’s a day you look forward to," head coach Rafe Watkins
said in his office decorated with BlueJay memorabilia. "We had
to battle the weather a little bit this morning, but that’s okay. We will take
the rain in August."
According to rules, teams must go the first 3-days of practice in helmets and
shorts only. Friday will be the first day of full pads.
Watkins was overall pleased on how his team showed up to practice after a long
summer of BlueJay Pride, better known as M.T.X.E.
"The kids came in pretty good shape. I
was pretty pleased with the conditioning that the kids are in," Watkins
said.
Some schools across the state will start school the following day after just one
day of practice, but Guthrie will have multiple practices before school ever
starts.
"I like it better (not beginning school as early).
For this group, the more days we
can have to practice without having to worry about school
the better. I wish we can get to that first scrimmage without
having to worry about school," Watkins concluded.
Senior Christian Lamb thought his team had a good opening day that hopefully
will set the tone for the rest of the week.
"I think we had a good day and we set a good foundation for the
rest of the week and season," the quarterback candidate said.
According to the ball coach, senior Mikey Johns showed up to practice in great
shape and has gotten bigger over the summer along with in-coming sophomore left
tackle Blake Belcher, and Zach Brown another sophomore who is expected to land
the left guard position.
As pleased as Watkins and Lamb were about the first day of practice, Watkins
knows the scrimmages with Ponca City and Ada will be the true gauge as to what
we may see come September 4th and the rest of the season.
"You can not judge a whole lot until you get to that first
scrimmage. The second scrimmage is going to decide a lot of races. I know a lot
of people point toward the quarterback job, but we have other spots too
with secondary, wide receivers, and tailback," Watkins said.
Okay. About that quarterback situation? Watkins shared his blue print on the
situation that has been vacated by, the all-time leading passer in GHS history,
Keaton Callins.
"The first three games you might see one (quarterback)
if he's hot, you might see two, and you
might see all three," Watkins said of Lamb, Haden Seifert, and Bryan
Dutton.
"Everyone is worried about the quarterback, but whoever starts
against Durant he will be our starting quarterback, bar injury, for the rest of
the season," Watkins firmly said.
"You can mark it down, we will have a starting quarterback that
will be full time, barring injury."
Watkins, who will begins his 9th season as the Jays coach, is anxious to
start the season and get to answering some of the questions that loom.
"I am really looking forward to this year because we have a
bunch of kids that are listening to every word we say and they know they
are going have to play their best."
Junior High Football:
Head coach Jeff Ball told the Booster Club,
in their weekly Tuesday meeting, that they have had a great
turn-out of players that totaled 82 student athletes (47 seventh
graders and 35 eighth graders).
Both teams will officially kick their
practices off Wednesday morning, 8:00am, at Faver Alternative
School.
Both teams will scrimmage Kingfisher, at
Jelsma Stadium, on August 25th with the start time of 6:00 pm
for the seventh grade team.
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