'Canes open '24 campaign under the hot sun in Miami

Owing a contest to Varela High, which came to the Upper Keys for a gridiron battle two seasons ago, the opportunity to visit the Vipers came this preseason for the Coral Shores High football team on Friday, Aug. 16, but at 3:30 p.m. as the fledging Miami program is still without lights on their home field.

“I think that will be good for us because we have been practicing in the heat, and it will be hot,” said Coral Shores coach Ed Holly. “We have taken extraordinary care to take care of our young men, especially with how hot it has been, I think that will only benefit us when we do start playing at 7 at night with our conditioning.”

With only 28 players on the roster this season, Holly stresses a majority of the Hurricanes will be playing on both sides of the ball, especially in the preseason.

“We are not one of these teams who has 60 or 70 players, so our kids are going to play a lot,” said Holly. “We are going to put a lot of guys out there in new positions to get the right recipe for success for us this year. We are taking this game as a learning experience so we can teach off it.”

The coach furthered that his staff has not worked on any defensive schemes or blitzes for the Vipers, nor will the Hurricanes show their entire playbook on offense, as they are looking to just establish the base plays in the preseason game.

“We really want to be prepared to play 48 minutes come next week,” said Holly.

Despite the contest not counting in the season standings, and several Hurricanes getting new opportunities, Holly reiterated that, “We always expect to do great things and the ultimate goal is to go 1-0 every week.”

“We only get 11 opportunities to play, so our guys are looking forward to it, they have been working hard all summer, they are in the weight room, conditioning hard, and are ready for the season to come around and anxiously awaiting the challenge on Friday afternoon,” said Holly.