Both the pigskin and rain drops were coming in aplenty at Skyline High School as the Spartans opened their first day of training camp, both of which were for the first time this month.

The team, much like the bleachers, showed a bit of rust it needed to shake off to begin the year after having not being able to practice as a team since the annual summer camp at the University of Puget Sound in late-July.

Skyline’s (close, from left) Heaps, Simone, and Somers take a breather during UPS camp in late-July.

Though the team might have ran routes or lifted weights together, a true team practice would have been a violation of WIAA rules. As such, the rest of the state also scheduled their first practice(s) today, some at wackier and more-ambitions times than others.

Skyline’s first practice began at 3:00 P.M. and consisted mostly of a reintroduction to the fairly extensive team playbook. Both sides of the ball were covered by coaches, but more of an emphasis, as told by starting varsity outside linebacker Ryan Somers, was placed on defense.

“The defensive playbook consists of forty-to-fifty plays that all require exact team coordination,” said Somers, “one misstep and the team is toast.”

Coming into the season, the defense is one of the team’s biggest question marks. Losing three of four starting defensive backs, and over half of the defense line and linebackers, the group is young and inexperienced. The majority of last year’s seniors started for the lousy 2006 team, gaining experience and skill. Most of this year’s seniors don’t have that luxury.

The coaches, understanding that the team is in need of a quick rebound from last year’s championship-winning season, have placed more emphasis on discipline this year than in year’s past. The team rules, hand-given to each player to begin the year, are all supposed to make the team the hardest-working and most disciplined in the state.

Somers noticed such in the first practice, saying that coach Mat Taylor stresses that each and every play of practice there shouldn’t be any slacking, be it by taking a knee watching seven-on-seven drills or having an unstrapped helmet even while on the sidelines. The helmets, as the senior says, “always have to be on.”

Though the team was not exactly in full-swing on their first day, they are getting that way. Thursday they hold two-a-days (two practices in a day), one in the morning and one at night. They will hold the dual practices three to four times a week until their first game, September 6, 2008, at PNC Park in Portland, OR.

Practices are open, but unless you are an aspiring journalist or want to scout out the team, they aren’t a hotspot for the final two weeks of summer. Though if you do go, don’t expect anything more than just drills and team talks, as the first day, as Somers said lackadaisically, was, “nothing special, just business.”