Wood River High School got a jump-start to its upcoming gridiron season at the Wolverine Football Camp this week in Hailey.
"I think it's going really well," said varsity head coach Mike Glenn. "We've got about 60 kids out there."
For some of the youngsters, it's the first time they've played tackle football. Glenn said basic techniques are being taught, some as elementary as how to properly wear a football uniform.
"We're teaching the kids how to put pads in their pants, the proper stance, how to block...the more we get done now, the farther ahead we'll be in August," Glenn said.
August is when things get really serious. A parent-player meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6 at the old WRHS auditorium. Practice for varsity and junior varsity players starts the following day. The season kicks off Aug. 25 with a home game against Fruitland.
Glenn said the camp started out a bit chaotic on Monday. Many of the players weren't yet conditioned mentally or physically for the rigors of full contact play. But it's best to get through preseason jitters and sluggishness now rather than waiting until August.
"The kids are having fun. They're out there learning some football. We had a really good drill this morning, Glenn said Wednesday.
"You can really sense there's a togetherness starting to happen, and that's a good thing," he said. "This is a good bunch of kids There's good signs -- we can see the growth."
Growing a successful and exciting high school football program for the Wood River Valley has been Glenn's objective since he took over as head football coach prior to the 2005 season.
Before that, the Wolverines were on a 14 game losing skid. Last year they finished 4-6, enough of an improvement to make football exciting again at the high school and in the valley.
But Glenn needs more kids. There aren't enough of them yet to fill up freshmen, junior varsity and varsity squads But he expects more youngsters to turn out for football by the time practice starts in August.
"We'd like to get about a hundred kids in the program. Football is a numbers game, so we need more kids," he said.
Mike Glenn, head football coach at Wood River High School, shows sophomore player Cody Chandler where to position himself during workout Tuesday at the Wolverine Football Camp. The words ?Wolverine Rage,? written on Glenn?s T-shirt, became a school slogan last fall as football excitement returned to WRHS. Photo by David N. Seelig
