For the Eagle faithful, the next four weeks may seem like an eternity.
That’s because we’re less than a month away from the opening of the East Jackson Eagles 2010 football season.
The Eagles closed out their breakthrough 2009 season as the region runners-up, going 10-2 overall and 8-1 in the region. They made it into the second round of state playoffs, first defeating Manchester 27-14 before ending their season with a 58-0 loss to Lovett.
The 2010 campaign opens at home on Aug. 27, as the Eagles play host to the White County Warriors in a non-region pairing.
But the road to the season opener actually begins on Monday, as the Eagles take to the practice field in pads and helmets.
Head coach Frank Caputo says when practice begins, he expects to have around 60 kids on the field.
“When school starts, we’ll pick up another 20 to 25,” he predicted.
The loss of seniors hasn’t hit the Eagles as hard as it has some other teams. In all, Caputo has 10 slots to be filled, including four on offense and six on defense.
Despite the losses, Caputo says the Eagles have a firm grasp on the direction they want to go.
“We’ve had in mind what we’re going to do,” he said. “We don’t change up anything. We’re pretty much intact at what we want to do.”
Caputo said the focus will be rudimentary once practice begins on Monday
“We’ll start back all on the fundamentals and rehash all of that,” he said. “Just do a bunch of fundamental work.”
One thing that Caputo and his staff will be watching closely over the next few weeks is the heat.
With heat indexes reaching into the triple digits, situations on the practice field could become a concern as the Eagles prepare for the season.
“Most of our guys have been with us all summer and are fairly heat acclimated,” Caputo said, “but we’ll definitely be following the Jackson County heat policy. But if it gets too hot, we either go inside or we suspend practice. It’s really not worth the risk of getting somebody dehydrated or hurt because of the heat.”
Caputo said practice days can be made up if the need arises.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News or The Jackson Herald.
