For high school teams across the state, the long-awaited first day of practice finally came Monday morning.
That included area football and volleyball teams as players and coaches were either out on the court or football field by sunrise.
Monday was the start of high school fall sports practices including varsity football teams that didn’t play spring ball.
Because Odessa High and Permian had spring ball this year, they will be starting varsity practices on Aug. 7.
Compass Academy began its first day of practice bright and early.
“It’s a blessing,” said Compass Academy head coach Floyd White. “Every time that the beginning of august comes, it’s a blessing to watch these kids because you get to see how much they’ve grown over the offseason and see how anxious they are to get going again.”
The Cougars are coming off a 4-7 overall record (2-4 in District 1-3A Division II) from last season. Because Compass Academy is in a four-team district alongside Crane, Alpine and Tornillo, the Cougars will be guaranteed a playoff spot again this year.
It’s not every year that the first day of practices occur while it’s still July.
However, with July 31 falling on a Monday, UIL fall sports teams were given an early start this year.
“It’s crazy but that’s the way the calendar rolls,” White said. “But it gives you the opportunity to get out there and get started even sooner. Some of these guys aren’t quite ready but regardless, the season’s coming.”
Other area football teams that began practices Monday included Monahans (which had a midnight practice), Crane and Kermit.
For White, the first day of practice included a bunch of teaching as Compass Academy enters year four of playing varsity football.
“When you have a fairly new program, you’re teaching from the bottom up,” White said. “With these guys, a lot of it is just basic fundamentals like learning how to key and learning how to leverage and doing different things. It’s a lot of fun watching them grow.”
Defense is the main focus for the Cougars this week.
“We start practices off defensively because that’s our mentality,” White said. “We want to stop people so we’re working defensive skills and we’re working leverages. Defensive backs are learning how to peddle and how to identify things. We’re teaching our backers how to key and who to key. A lot of this is just learning the basic fundamentals because we have a few weeks to get going.”
>> VOLLEYBALL: One by one, Permian volleyball players entered the Permian Fieldhouse as head coach Gillian Herrera marked down their names.
Just like with Compass Academy’s football team, the Lady Panther volleyball team began its first practice in the early hours Monday morning.
An upbeat Herrera was eager to get the day going.
“We’re extremely excited to get going and put it all together and get ready for another season,” Herrera said.
The Lady Panthers are coming off a strong 2022 season which included a 27-10 overall (8-2 in District 2-6A) record, a second place finish in the district standings and a bi-district title over El Paso Franklin.
Permian’s season ended with a loss to Southlake Carroll in the area round.
The Lady Panthers are coming off consecutive playoff appearances but return only two players on varsity this year with Jade Workman and Ariyana Garcia.
Despite having a younger team this year, Herrera and her players remain optimistic and are eager to get the season started.
“It’s exciting,” Herrera said. “The girls get to see each other. But we haven’t had much of a break because we’ve been working all summer long so this is just getting back on the volleyball court and putting the uniforms on and going to play other teams around here. It’s an exciting time to play volleyball. It’s great to get back to the grind.”
Across town, Odessa High volleyball head coach Cody Dominguez and his players were also getting ready for the season.
“I’ve been very excited to see the amount of talent that we have coming in,” Dominguez said. “We’re seeing everyone putting in the work and we’re challenging everyone.”
The Lady Bronchos are coming off a 13-18, 0-10 showing from last year.
However, Odessa High should have more experience on its team as seven players return at the varsity level.
The first day of practice for the Lady Bronchos was getting the nerves out.
“We have a lot of incoming freshmen who are nervous and a lot of returning players that are just making sure that they are competing at every level,” Dominguez said. “A lot of it is just nerves. Once we get past that, everything is good.”
The team also spent the first day working on the fundamentals.
“We’ve been working on our passing and just getting better with the ball as well as hitting,” Dominguez said.
Compass Academy’s volleyball team will begin practices on Tuesday.
