As soon as the afternoon rolled around, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial football players were getting anxious.
The Chargers were ready to get going for their first practice of the 2017 season.
“It feels amazing … I’ve been waiting for this day ever since the last day of football last season,” senior cornerback Aaron Recio said.
The players have worked all summer, running, conditioning and lifting weights — like others around the Metro-area — but now that practice is finally here, they’re eager to hit the field.
“I’ve been waiting all summer to put pads on,” senior defensive end Manny Yanez said. “To get strapped up and start getting ready for the football season.”
Yanez and the rest of his teammates will have to wait a few days for that. Players can only practice with helmets for now and will have to wait until Friday for contact practices.
It all started in the summer. Brownsville Veterans head coach David Cantu said his team put in the work in the offseason, investing its time to prepare for this moment.
“The more you have invested, the more you fight for something,” he said. “As coaches we try to take advantage of that; we want to hit the ground running.”
The Chargers are coming off a season in which they earned a share of the District 32-5A crown, but lost around 40 seniors to graduation in the offseason. While the goals won’t change, faces do and Brownsville Veterans is trying to figure out who can fill those spots.
“It’s a new year and a new start, there are new faces,” Cantu said. “One of our big goals is to develop depth at all positions. If we have situations with injuries … hopefully we don’t … we’ll have the answer for that.”
During its first practices of the season this week, Brownsville Veterans plans to make sure the team is where it needs to be day-to-day. Rather than try to get everything figured out on Day 1, the Chargers are reviewing, reinstalling and making sure they’re learning gradually, mastering one thing before moving on to the next.
“It’s a long season, so we have to pace ourselves,” Cantu said. “We need to stay calm and make sure we’re teaching.”
The team started its practice with special teams work before moving to individual and position work. Coaches made sure players were getting their footwork down, their hands off a block correctly and everything in between, focusing on the basics, their techniques, the small things that make a difference later in the season.
Brownsville Veterans hopes to continue what it started last season. But the Chargers know nothing will be handed to them, they have to earn it.
“No days off … we have to put in that work,” senior offensive lineman Brandon Salazar said. “We can’t let other people tell us we’re not as good as last year.”
No title is won or lost on the first day of practice, but Brownsville Veterans knows it all starts with belief and hard work. Even on the first day of practice though, the Chargers were chomping at the bit because they knew what they were working towards.
“Our main focus is do your job … know your responsibility,” Recio said. “But we’re all hungry, we all want another district championship.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.