By Mike Reeder
Staff Writer

The Boerne Champion Chargers are dressing for business after holding their first practice in pads Aug. 8.

While the hitting was limited, the first day of contact drills is always a milestone in the progress of a football team, as the players readjust to wearing equipment and reacclimate their bodies to the collisions they will endure over the course of a season.

“All the hitting is going to come later,” senior center Kevin Peet said two hours into contact drills. “We have all season to get the intensity up. Right now you just have to work on your technique and getting things right so that you develop good habits.”

“This is where it starts,” Chargers Head Coach Danny Threadgill said.

“When we go out there Aug. 30 against Midlothian we’re looking forward to seeing these fundamental techniques we’re teaching right now carry over in the game. That’s one of the hardest things to do, because when you’re in the game you kind of forget about your fundamentals and say, ‘Oh, I’m just going to play and catch and run.’ But when you forget the fundamentals none of that stuff looks very good.”

Given even the minor injuries that inevitably follow a team, some fans might wonder if the risks of contact practices are worth the gains. The simple answer is that it’s one thing to make sure your feet are in the right place, your assignments are followed and your job is carried out when both you and the person you’re lined up against are wearing shirts and shorts.

It’s something altogether different when you’re lugging around pads and trying to perform your duties in a mosh pit of flying bodies as half a dozen armored antagonists try to knock you on your keister.

“You take those first couple of hits and feel a little pain and then your toughness kind of comes back,” senior quarterback Chuck Thornally said. “After just a couple of days in shirts and shorts guys were already looking forward to start to hit. Now, you see who can really play with the pads on, and that’s what’s important.”

“We’re not going to pull them back, but we’re blowing a quick whistle, so we’re probably going at about 80 to 85 percent,” Chargers Head Coach Danny Threadgill said. “We sure don’t want to see anyone taken out because injuries are going to be key to everyone’s season.”

The players themselves appeared energized by the chance to finally go at each other at something approaching full speed. In fact, the athletes seemed far less patient with mistakes than coaches, who viewed early errors as teaching opportunities.

“I thought they looked pretty good for a first day in pads,” Threadgill said. “They’ve just got to understand it’s a growing process. Nobody in the state’s starting out at the top of their game so I don’t know why we think we would.”

The growing process continues Saturday at Fredericksburg with the Chargers’ first scrimmage. Freshmen teams lead off at 10 a.m., with the varsity taking the field at noon.