Auburn High, Opelika wrap up first week of preseason practice

The countdown to the 2008 high school football season started as soon as the 2007 season ended.

But that countdown kicked into high gear this past week as schools from around the state opened their summer preseason practices.

“This is the part of the year where you really get anxious,” Opelika head coach Spence McCracken said. “You know it’s getting close and you’re ready to start the regular season.”

The regular season for most AHSAA and AISA schools starts on Aug. 29. But the time to work is now, across the area and state.

Auburn opened its summer workouts with right at 100 players, down just slightly from last year’s total.

Head coach Tim Carter returns just a handful of returning starters from last year’s 8-4 team which reached the second round of the Class 6A playoffs. But Carter said he’s been pleased with the first week of work from his group of athletes.

“There’s a lot of new faces, but the effort out here has been outstanding,” Carter said. “We’ve been really excited with how they’ve practiced this first week — just a very workman-like attitude and making a lot of progress.”

Auburn held eight practices in the last five days, but Carter said things will kick into high gear starting next week.

That’s when the Tigers get into a more seasonal workout schedule with school starting.

“This week was a lot of conditioning and getting things in,” Carter said. “Next week, we’re really going to get going with school starting.”

Opelika’s players opened their summer workouts right along with the start of school.

McCracken said he opened summer workouts with 63 players — down 12 from last year and down some 20 from spring workouts.

“We’ve got 63 who want to follow the rules and work hard,” McCracken said. “But we’re going to work the kids the same whether we’ve got 53 or 83.”

McCracken, entering his final season at Opelika, is faced with the same task he faced heading into last year — replacing nearly his entire starting lineup.

Last year, the Bulldogs returned no starters. This year, one starter will be back. The defense also returns just four starters.

McCracken said he and his staff spent the first week of practices on getting everyone in playing shape, waiting for next week to focus on more game-type situations.

While Opelika’s first official game of the year is on Aug. 28 at Sidney Lanier, the Bulldogs will play a jamboree scrimmage the Friday before at home against Spain Park.

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