Excitement reigns as prep football practices open

The scenes are familiar. So are the smells.

A countdown clock in Mid-Prairie's locker room showed 18 days and change until the Golden Hawks' opener against Williamsburg. Concurrently, Williamsburg's players ran conditioning drills with Mid-Prairie on their minds.

But few places in Iowa buzzed quite like Tiffin, where Clear Creek Amana opened practice at its new football facility that cost between $5 million and $6 million. Along with new bleachers and a dynamic sound system that doubles as a scoreboard, Clear Creek Amana's FieldTurf has the players sizzling with excitement.

Off the turf, the temperature hovered close to 90 degrees, according to school officials. On the turf, it measured 117 degrees. But that wasn't a problem for the appropriately named Blaze Smith, Clear Creek Amana's senior quarterback.

“Oh man, it's going to be great,” said Smith, who barely could contain himself. “We're hoping to be a lot faster on it, a lot quicker and just have a faster tempo on the turf.”

Clear Creek Amana's linemen were excited to hit the turf, even for conditioning drills.

“This is what we've been waiting for all summer,” senior lineman Bobby Hora said. “It's a blast to be out here, trying not to sneak in.”

One of Clear Creek Amana's district foes - Williamsburg - boasts more than 70 players on its roster. Padded practices are still days away, but heads already are cracking. A camp collision between quarterback Tanner Blomme and running back Cord Slaymaker left Blomme with a pair of black eyes and a broken nose that needs resetting.

“It was just a fake, and I tried to carry on a nice big fake,” Slaymaker said. “He was on a boot left and I was going right, and my elbow came up and it hit in two different directions. Everyone didn't think it was broken, but we knew just from the sound of it. It was a pretty big crack.”

Blomme is practicing and he said the goals remain the same for Williamsburg: win a district title and advance through the playoffs. The Raiders are coming together nicely, senior lineman Ryan Hulseberg said.

“We're starting to refocus, get into football mode and we're just ready to hit some people,” Hulseberg said. “Everyone's getting tired of all the running. But it's all worth it in the end.”

Mid-Prairie's weight room in Wellman echoed with the sounds of Metallica meshed with free weights crashing into place. The Golden Hawks finished 10-2 and advanced to the state quarterfinals last year before falling to eventual state champion Solon. But with returning 2,000-yard rusher Tanner Miller, the Golden Hawks are poised to take the next step this fall.

“I think expectations are just as high or even higher (than last year),” Miller said.

“Obviously the Dome (where the state championship is played) is our ultimate goal to get there. I think we have the group to do it.”

Mid-Prairie opened football practice at 8 a.m. to cool but humid temperatures.

Mid-Prairie featured a camp last week and finished its first day of practice without pads. It was a heavy dose of conditioning and fundamentals.

“It was great. It was real up tempo,” Miller said. “Guys eliminated the mistakes that we usually have for the first practice, and you're going to have those mistakes and we did. (But) it was to a limited basis.”