The minutes are counting down to the holiest of holy days for the Tiger Nation – opening day for Commerce Tiger football.
The opening game, a non-region pairing with Commerce’s age-old rival, the Jefferson Dragons, is slated for Aug. 27, but the first major move towards that big day comes on Monday, Aug. 2, when the team takes to the field for the first official practice of the 2010 season.
The practice, which will allow the teams to suit up in shorts, shoulder pads and helmets, will begin the 25-day countdown for kickoff against the Dragons on Tiger Field.
With the loss of about 16 seniors from last year’s team, including key defender Casey Drinkard, along with running backs Deon Brock, Jon Cash and Josh Streetman, the team has a lot of gaps to fill before the season opener.
Coach Steve Savage said this week that he expects in excess of 50 players to hit the field on Monday.
From the top, they’ll be working on the fundamentals, he said.
“We’ll start out first thing with tackling,” he said. “Then we’ll work our way to blocking. The game is still about who blocks and tackles the best.”
And Commerce was certainly one of the best at that last year, going 7-5 overall and 5-1 in region play. The Tigers made it as far as the second round of state playoff action, defeating Landmark Christian 29-19
in the first round before falling to Darlington in round two, 28-14.
Commerce’s opening game will be its 65th pairing with the Dragons. In all, the Tigers have bested their in-county rivals 41 times, 22 of which came at home. In the last few pairings, things haven’t been as rosy. Commerce hasn’t tasted victory against Jefferson since 2006, when the Tigers won the last of a record 12 consecutive games.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News.
