By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — With the first practice of August in the books, Ruston High is settling into the version of preseason work that will carry the Bearcats toward this month’s Bayou Jamb appearance against Evangel.
Head Coach Jerrod Baugh said the transition has been smooth, built on groundwork the program laid back in June and July.
“I think it’s going well,” Baugh said. “We kind of redistribute our guys once July hits, normally after the week of the Fourth, and really get a chance to hone in — one group’s the varsity guys, and then the JV guys and the freshmen. You’re able to just get more eyes on everybody once we redistribute them the way that we do in July.”
Baugh said the workload has steadily shifted toward football-specific work as the summer has progressed, and Monday’s practice — the first with an extended schedule — reflected that buildup.
“We start doing a lot more football stuff the later in the summer it gets, and I thought they handled that well,” Baugh said. “It kind of gives you a head start coming into today. Our kids know what our routine is because we’ve already been doing it some. It’s just an extended practice. I thought it was pretty good today, and I think that’s due to how much stuff we do during the summer, group-wise.”
Baugh pointed to the program’s returning starters as a summer bright spot citing the leadership the group has provided across the board.
“I think our guys that are coming back — returning starters, guys with a lot of experience — are showing up and doing what they need to do,” Baugh said. “We’ve got to have those guys play well from the beginning, and to me it starts with what their attitude is coming into it. I think they’ve shown a really good attitude about coming to work.”
Ruston enters the season under a now-familiar spotlight, with outside publications and recruiting outlets ranking the Bearcats among the state’s top teams. Baugh said he doesn’t put much stock in outside projections, in part because there’s no way to know what the rest of the season holds.
“I don’t know nowadays, with the way social media is, that you can keep it cleared out,” Baugh said of outside expectations of the program. “But I think they’ve been around it so much that maybe it’s second nature to expect that people have those expectations. I don’t know how people judge who’s going to be the best team in the state. I don’t have a clue about how good anybody else is. I think we’ve got a chance to be a good football team, but you never know what things will transpire.”
Baugh cited an early example of that uncertainty: Holt Hunt has already been ruled out for the season with an injury, forcing the Bearcats to adjust their depth chart before the year has even started.
“We’ve already had to shuffle some things in that area,” Baugh said. “You don’t know what things will happen during the year that make you have to make some changes. I think everybody ought to think about — (running back) Dalen Powell got hurt last year. We were fortunate we had Kohl Gray come in and do a really good job. But you have things like that where maybe your backup situation isn’t as good as that, and then you start shuffling people around, and that changes your football team.”
Baugh said the length of the season is part of why he tries to keep expectations in perspective.
“It’s a long way from August 3rd to possibly playing the second weekend in December,” Baugh said. “If we stay healthy, I feel like we should have an opportunity to play a long ways in the playoffs and give ourselves a chance to make a run at a state championship. But who knows what’s going to happen, and who knows how good everybody else is. The only thing we can control is our guys and what we do on a daily basis, and I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen so far.”
Looking at the rest of the week, Baugh said the focus is on easing players back into full equipment after a summer built around conditioning and speed work.
“There’s a difference between running around out here doing conditioning and speed work without a helmet, and leaving a helmet on for a prolonged period of time,” Baugh said. “There’s some neck exercise that gets in there. It’s just getting used to having all that equipment on, and then we ease into it.”
Ruston plans to practice in helmets for four consecutive days before adding shoulder pads Monday through Wednesday of next week, then moving to full gear next Thursday and Friday.
“I just think easing them into it and taking advantage of every day to try to figure out and get ourselves into some playing shape,” Baugh said.
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