By FREDDY GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
LYFORD – The Lyford Bulldog football team continued two-a-day practices Wednesday afternoon at Bulldog Stadium. With a turn out of about 80 participants head coach Jamie Infante and his staff conducted walk-throughs and prepared the team for the season ahead.
Unlike most teams, Infante and his coaches held practice during afternoon hours to get the players acclimated to the type of conditions the team will face once school commences later this month.
However the heat did not deter the mood of the camp as players battled for open spots left by departed players.
“We’ve had a great group of kids come out and they have been very enthusiastic,” said Infante. “The kids have responded to the afternoon weather very well and we’re excited about the group that’s come out.”
One of the most notable returning starters is senior quarterback John Rivera. As a junior, Rivera passed for almost 2,000 yards, but he did have some growing pains playing at the varsity level.
“John last year started for us as a junior and he definitely matured for us as the year went along,” said Infante. “He had a good spring, he’s come back and we are really looking forward to seeing how much he’s matured as the season goes along.”
Last year the Bulldogs were as Coach Infante puts it “snake bitten” due to the rash of injuries the team sustained. However this year’s group could benefit from last seasons misfortunes.
On the bright side a lot younger players got an opportunity to receive valuable playing time.
“We have a lot of last years leaders back,” said Infante. “Fortunately we were very young last year and we are going to be playing with a bit of sophomores and juniors and a lot of them got game experience so I think that’s going to be a plus for us. We had to shuffle people around due to key people getting hurt last year and we were still able to be successful.
“While we might not have a large number of starters back we do have a lot of players that were able to get game experience and that’s what we’re excited about.”
In total Infante says he has a total of around 11 starters returning from last year’s squad, six on offense and between four or five on defense. However because of the amount of rotation that took place it’s hard to really put a number.
Lyford will hold two scrimmages against Valley View (Friday August 14th) and La Feria (August 20th) before kicking off the season against La Villa on Friday August 28th.