The Brownwood Lions kicked off their fifth season under head coach Sammy Burnett Monday morning, and a season filled with high expectations was met with the expected level of enthusiasm by the players.
The Lions, who are 23-21 under Burnett, were picked last week by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football website to not only win District 2-4A Division I, but Region I as well. Brownwood is coming off a 4-7 bi-district campaign in Region II a year ago but returns seven offensive and 10 defensive starters.
“If you live a life without passion or purpose it’s not much of a life, and we showed some passion today which we didn’t last year,” Burnett said. “We had some kids out there butting heads and all we had on was helmets, no other pads. I thought our chemistry was really good. Our kids came out energetic and stayed energetic. They stayed positive about what they were doing, and they showed a great sense of urgency to go out there and gain all the knowledge they can right now and become masters of their craft.”
Burnett reported between 130-140 players out for football this season, split to around 45 players between the varsity, junior varsity and freshman squads.
“This is the first time in a long time we’re having friendly competition,” Burnett said. “People are fighting for positions and kids know if they don’t have the knowledge and take that knowledge to the field with them, they’re not going to stay on the field long. Competition is everything, iron sharpens iron, and if you don’t have that and you know you are going to get a spot because you are the only one left, that isn’t a good thing.”
Among the first day highlights, Burnett said, “We had kids running great routes and catching balls. Our receiving corps, if they drop a ball, they have to give you five pushups. I didn’t have to say anything to them, they started implementing that. Then in our run hull our offensive and defensive lines were getting after it. The speed at which they are playing is ahead of the game. It was more like a second week practice than a first day.”
Regarding the goals for the rest of the first week of workouts, Burnett said, “Getting into physical shape and learning before you put on those pads and beat everybody up. We have kids getting in new positions trying to learn those positions and the scheme, and so much of the game is mental. The easy part, and I hope the best part, is that we’re going to be physical. But we’ll see Friday and Saturday how that turns out.”
The Lions will hold their Maroon-White scrimmage Saturday at Gordon Wood Stadium to wrap up the first week of practice.
