by Malcolm Butler
With temperatures expected to reach the upper 90s in the afternoons for the entirety of this week, Cedar Creek head coach William Parkerson put his Cougars through morning practice Monday on day one of official fall camp.
The second-year head coach at Cedar Creek said nothing surprised him about the opening day of workouts.
“It was a first day,” said Parkerson. “Lots of enthusiasm. Lots of excitement. Lots of mistakes as well. Typical first day with a lot of guys flying around.
“The goal (for day one) is always just to get them out there. To go back to our base calls on offense and defense. Day one install stuff. Things we want to hang our hat on. Try to get those down pat before we start expanding out.”
Parkerson said day one saw 35 varsity players suit up for practice, while the Creek junior high players were also out there for aspects of practice.
“We are trying to do that this year so we can coach them and they can go through as much stuff as far as individuals periods as they an with the varsity,” said Parkerson. “We didn’t do it (Monday), but starting (today) we will move them when we go to group and team … we will move them to the other end of the field and let them do that against themselves.”
Monday’s morning session included what Parkerson referred to as a “Get Tough” period followed by an hour of offense and an hour of defense.
The Cougars are coming off a season that saw them finish third in District 2-1A while earning a berth in the Select School Division IV playoffs where they fell to Catholic Pointe Coupee in the opening round. Creek graduated a number of key contributors off of last year’s team, including starting QB Ladd Thompson.
Kade Lukar was penciled in as the starter for Creek at signal caller this fall, but Lukar opted to concentrate solely on baseball leaving the Cougars roster void of a single player who has ever taken a varsity snap under center.
However, Parkerson said his biggest goal for this year’s team is to develop depth so fewer players have to play both ways.
“We want to play as many guys as we trust and that we think can contribute,” said Parkerson. “It won’t happen this year, but we would love to have 11 starters on offense and 11 different starters on defense. It’s their job to earn our trust in order to get out there.”
Cedar Creek also lost starting linebacker Alex Simpson who departed for North DeSoto, but was able to bring in Riverfield transfer Mason Wooten, whose step-father is Kyle Stracener. The former Cedar Creek head coach more than 20 years ago returns to serve as an assistant on this year’s Cougar coaching staff.
“He has lots of insight and lots of ideas,” said Parkerson when asked about the addition of Stracener. “We will lean on him.”
Following Monday morning’s practice, the Cougars returned to the facility during the afternoon to lift weights and watch film.
“In the afternoons we will workout and have position meetings to watch film from practice and install anything that is going in the next day,” said Parkerson.
Creek will practice in the morning every day this week with the exception of Friday when they will practice in the evening.
