Orioles working toward opener

SPRINGVILLE — Coach Joe Martin and his team are starting to get that itch. Football season is here again.Wednesday marked the third day of practice for the Orioles, who will begin the season Aug. 23 in a Week 0 eight-man matchup with HLV at Victor. Martin, in his third year as head coach, said playing a team like HLV early is beneficial.'I think getting into it right away with a team that has experience and has that playoff mentality will hopefully get us ready to get going a little bit sooner and carry it on,' Martin said. 'The other nice thing with it is since we have a week zero game, we actually have a bye week during the season now. So that will get us a chance to recuperate and get us fresh again.'This is the first season Iowa teams aren't allowed to hold two-a-day practices.The Orioles return Elias Nissen, a first team all-state utility player in 2012, who has begun to assume a leadership role in the opening week. He said the team's preparation has gone smoothly without two practices each day.'It will be different just since they took away two-a-days so we don't have as much time to prepare for it, but having camp (last week), we took advantage of our time,' Nissen said.Springville reached the state playoffs for the first time last season. Although the Orioles lost in the second round to Don Bosco, the enthusiasm for success has stayed with the team through the off-season and into the first week of practice.'The kids would probably love to practice for five hours if we could because they, probably almost too much, like being around each other,' Martin said. 'It just builds off one another, and that's awesome.'