Day One felt a bit different Wednesday for Polk County head football coach Dustin Fry. The Wolverines kicked off the official start of preseason practice with a spirited workout under steamy skies on the school practice field. The day marked the start of preparation for Polk’s season opener on August 23 at Madison.
Entering his second season with the program, Fry had a full offseason to train and prepare the Wolverines for the upcoming year. Throw in a busy summer schedule and the first day of practice didn’t feel quite as new despite the many fresh faces on the field.
“Very happy with Day One,” Fry said. “The nice thing is, we’ve had mini-camp, we’ve had a long summer where we got some practices in on 7-on-7, so there’s not a complete relearn of everything. You can kind of jump in and keep going and keep installing.
“For as hot as it got, we had a little bit of breeze, but they pushed through.”
Installing offensive and defensive formations occupied part of the opening day. Also a key part of the workout of almost two hours was conditioning, which Fry is stressing this season as the Wolverines again expect to have a number of two-way players.
“We’ve got to get to where we can play games in the third and fourth quarters better,” he said. “That’s my whole goal of camp this year, to make sure that we’re in shape for the third and fourth quarter.
“They felt it at the end of the day, which was the point.”
Polk County will continue late-morning practices this week before shifting to an afternoon schedule next week as teachers report for workdays prior to school opening on August 12. The Wolverines’ first scrimmage action is set for August 9, a six-team preseason event during which Polk will square off against McDowell.
It will be a young Wolverine squad stepping onto W.J. Miller Field that evening, and Fry is glad to have a year’s experience at Polk County under his belt in tackling that challenge.
“I don’t want to say it’s easier, because I’ve got so many young kids,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of seniors, so there are a lot of coaching details. It’s like bringing them through the knot hole and coaching every little thing.
“But it’s easier in the fact that all my playbooks are done. I don’t have to do a whole lot of paperwork-type stuff. The older guys know what to expect and know what I expect, and that gets fed down to the younger guys. So they’ve been good.”
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