Hoggard, Ashley hold first football practices
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY) — Wednesday marked the first official day that area schools could hold football practices and two of the area’s top teams were on the field at the crack of dawn.
Hoggard has finished undefeated in conference play in four of the last five years. As the calendar moves to 2025, Head Coach Craig Underwood says there’s something special about the first practice.
“To me, day one is about effort and energy,” Underwood said. “It really is. It’s about getting a season started. You can feel it. Just the energy coming off the field. How excited these guys are to play football. We’ve been working since the spring. They put in a lot of hours already. It’s about just that energy of ‘hey, it’s officially here.'”
Many new faces are mixed with the returning players and they hope to find out who will take command in the huddle.
“The nerves are up,” defensive end Everett Hoerdemann. “Nobody’s officially made the team yet, so everyone’s coming in and bringing their A-game. Just trying their hardest hitting. I just want to see who our leaders are. I’d say I myself need to step into a leadership role more. We got a couple guys who have been trying to step into a leadership role and lead this team. I think that that’s really what we need.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Morning practices mean the players have to wake up early, something they may not be used to doing during summer vacation. However, there is no place they would rather be.
“We preach that ‘one team’ around here and it’s really coming together,” tight end Weston Clark. “I think we look forward to being here pushing each other. We’re having a good time doing it. I myself look forward to it and I think a lot of other guys do too.”
Across town, Ashley is getting ready to try and repeat their recent success.
The Eagles won nine games last season after winning just ten over the previous five years combined.
Head Coach Dante Lombardi hopes to keep building the program’s culture.
“We’re going to compete every day,” Lombardi said. “We’re going to work to be one of the most physical teams on the field. One of the smartest teams and most disciplined. I think that was our MO the last few years. Work through this heat. I told them today, it’s the same heat that it is in every other every other school in our conference. Can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Jost got to keep working through it. Hopefully it cools off, but just keep working and get better each day.”
The players hope to make their winning ways a habit.
“It feels great,” running back Bryson Lovelace said. “I definitely feel like we have more size to our team. We have a lot more players coming in to join the program. We’re just trying to keep the momentum from last year. Keep it going, keep the energy up and do our thing.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Nobody expects to be perfect on day one and the squad keeps score of their performance.
“I’d say probably an eight just because even though we made some mistakes, we still cleaned it up,” linebacker Adrian Gaines said. “Also, we were competing. That’s a lot better than we’ve done in the past. So we definitely wanted it more today.”
There are some things the players hope to accomplish during the early days of the campaign.
“Just getting more chemistry for all my teammates and my players,” defensive back and wide receiver Jahlil Bryant said. “We just want to communicate more. At the same time, lift everybody’s heads up and stuff and motivate people. Sometimes players go down after a missed play. So the next play, we’re just trying to go full speed.”
Other schools such as Laney and New Hanover opted for night practices during the first week.
