The Permian and Odessa High football teams began the start of their season as the Panthers and Bronchos had their first practice of the season Monday morning.
While last week was the start of football practice for most UIL high school teams across Texas, 5A and 6A schools that had spring ball were not allowed to begin until Aug. 7.
Both Odessa High and Permian didn’t waste a single second getting out on the field as the squads were on their respective practice fields before sunrise.
“It feels great,” Permian head coach Jeff Ellison said. “There was great energy this morning. The kids are excited and the coaches are excited. It’s the first day of practice so it’s a great feeling early in the morning. It was a great day.”
Ellison enters his sixth season as the Permian head coach.
The Panthers are coming off a 9-2 overall record, 4-1 in District 2-6A, from last year, which ended with a 45-28 loss in the bi-district round to El Paso Pebble Hills.
With each new season brings a new challenge for anyone and Ellison is eager to see how much better his team will get over the coming days and months.
“It’s more of just coming in and knowing that you’re going to get better each and every day,” Ellison said about the first week of practice. “Day one of practice, you’re going to be better in three days of practice. Our kids have worked hard. The coaches have worked hard. It was a very well-organized practice. We had great energy. Kids were getting locked in. as far as challenges go. We just need to come in each day and get better.”
One of the things that caught Ellison’s attention the most during the first day of practice was the size of his offensive line.
“I think on our size up front on the offensive line is pretty big,” Ellison said. “We’re going to be some mean, nasty guys up front. Our running game looked really well today with Juzstyce Lara back there. I was pleased with some of our quarterback plays and seeing the quicker reads. As practice went on, they started seeing things clearer. Defensively, we were flying around the ball. We worked a lot on alignments and getting everyone where they needed to be. When we started moving, we were flying.”
Across town, the Bronchos arrived at Joe Coleman field, bright and early to begin their first practice of the season.
“It was great seeing everyone,” Odessa High head coach Dusty Ortiz said. “We’ve actually seen everyone all summer. They’ve done a good job of showing up for summer workouts. I think it was just the anticipation of the first official day of practice. It was good.”
Ortiz said the next couple of days will be an acclimating period.
“Now we have the next two days of acclimation so we’re trying to get that over with because we’ve been working with acclimation for the past four or five weeks with the extra hour the UIL gives us,” Ortiz said. “We’ll get through this acclimation of helmets and shirt and shorts. Wednesday, we’ll put on shoulder pads. By the time we get to Saturday, we’ll be able to go live. It’s the anticipation of the new season. We’re excited to get started.”
Ortiz enters his third year as the Bronchos head coach.
“I think the first year was kind of chaotic and the second year was a little better,” Ortiz said. “But I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better start this year. The check-in process, once they go through the trainer’s line and know what to expect from practice. Monday morning was really good. It’s better than it’s been and that’s what you want.”
Odessa High will be looking to improve from last year’s 3-7, 0-5 showing as the Bronchos look for their first playoff appearance in 10 years.
Like their crosstown rivals, the Bronchos will have some weapons back on their offense including wide receiver and four-star recruit Ivan Carreon who recently committed to the University of Oklahoma.
Ortiz was pleased with everyone’s early arrival time Monday.
“The report time was 5:45 a.m. and we had kids lining up at 5:15 a.m. so that was impressive because that’s something we’ve been working on since I’ve been here,” Ortiz said. “I was really happy to see that. It was a good gesture of what they expect out of this season. Once we got out there, we got going through the team and group sessions and it was just really good.”
Odessa High will begin the season Aug. 25 at Lubbock Monterey while Permian will face Abilene High that same day at Ratliff Stadium.
