CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The London Pirates held a practice that reminded them of a football game, but it was only the first Friday of training. Texas UIL rules allow teams to put on full pads at midnight, the first Saturday of practice.
"Seeing the stands, seeing all of the support out here," said London senior linebacker Ethan Goff. "The stands were filled. It was like going out on a Friday night game. It was amazing."
A new tradition that was brought in by first-year head coach Andy Smith.
"This is not normal," Smith said. "It's not like this everywhere to have this kind of community support, and it goes back really to coach (Robbie) Moreno and the former staff to building this community. There wasn't a high school here 14 or 15 years ago."
London's defense has a lot of potential, especially in the secondary with their athletic ballhawks. It's nights like this that show coach Smith and Goff who the tough tacklers are on the team.
"Favorite part about the first day of pads is really seeing who can hit," said Goff. "I mean some people surprise you, so it's just great to cheer those guys on. I mean sometimes the littlest guys hit the hardest."
On offense, senior quarterback Alex Manning continues to build on his connections, learning the new schemes with his receivers.
"We have all of them returning mostly," Manning said. "We only had a few that graduated or are not playing, so we got a lot of our guys back. They're quick and elusive. We got most of our skills, so we're excited."
The Pirates are looking to extend their 11-year playoff streak. They're ranked fourth in the UIL District 15-3A DI preseason poll. One step toward that goal is establishing command in the trenches.
"We like to run the football. That's really what we kind of hang our hat on," Smith said. "We're going to throw the football as well, but I'm a former offensive lineman, so you know we're going to try to get the big guys going and run the football."
The Pirates start their season with a road trip to Bishop on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.
