By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Transition periods test resilience, adaptability and identity. Bedford North Lawrence has entered such a phase.
These are the times that try a player’s soul. School has started, which means early-morning arousals (no sympathy there), math homework (some sympathy) and a new routine. After a soft summer of what amounts to two-hand-touch football, full pads will be worn on Thursday, which changes the physicality and mindset on the turf. From now on, the game gets real.
How will the Stars adapt? Are they resilient? What will be their identity? They are about to start answering those questions.
“We’ll find out,” BNL coach Brayden Tidd said. “We find out pretty quick, who wants to be here and who doesn’t. I was impressed, for the second straight year, with the first day of school practice. They’re getting used to where their classes are, new teachers, math homework. Now they have two hours to get away from all that stuff, escape and separate.“
Pads Day was referred to as “Christmas” for those eager for contact. Nothing feels better than opening the season with a smack-down takedown. So the final day of non-contact was ‘Christmas Eve’ in August.
“It does get serious,” BNL senior lineman Case Stiles said. “We’ve been getting hyped for full pads. It will definitely show who wants to hit and who doesn’t want to hit. We will see who wants to be on defense. We’re looking forward to bringing people down – even though they are teammates. It keeps us getting better, and it translates to the competition – the real thing.”
Before the Stars face an outside, angry opponent (Brownstown in the sanctioned scrimmage on Aug. 14), there are more questions to resolve. First and foremost is the depth chart, which will hinge on who can play with high-speed, full-force aggression. The spotlight will shine on the defensive line, which is replacing two talented passing-game disrupters, and the offensive line, which will be protecting new quarterback Cutler Chastain.
The known commodities will be the skill positions (receivers and running backs) and defensive backfield. The next week of workouts will shed a lot of light on all the issues.
”We have ideas, and we are narrowing it down,” Tidd said. “These first two weeks will tell a lot. The depth chart is still pretty open, but we will find out who wants to slide in there, and who doesn’t want to play.
”We’re cleaning things up. We had some misfires on a couple of Day One plays, which I didn’t like to see. We have new guys on the defensive side of the ball, and that side has done the best job so far. We have two new offensive linemen, and a new quarterback who has done well so far. We need to make sure we are doing Day One stuff right.”
In reality, there are several Day Ones on the schedule. The first day of school is obviously one, so is Pads Day. After that, it all leads to the most important one, the first game of the regular season (Aug. 21 against Martinsville). That will make the early mornings, the afternoon toil on the turf, and late-night homework, worth it.
”For me, and a lot of the guys, after getting up early, we really look forward to practice,” Stiles said. “We’ve been getting a lot of energy.”
