Plainsmen getting ready

Richard Anderson photo
New Laramie High School football coach Bob Knapton encourages his players as they stretch on Wednesday during the Plainsmen Football Camp.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Bob Knapton knows he has a little catching up to do as the new head football coach for Laramie High School, as do the Plainsmen themselves.

When the Plainsmen meet for the first official practice of the 2008 season on Aug. 18, they’ll not only be caught up but likely ahead of the normal pace.

Since being named the Plainsmen coach late this spring, Knapton has been busy working with his players in various camps, including the annual University of Wyoming team camp and this week’s Plainsmen Camp at the Laramie High School practice field.

“I always like to get a camp in before you start two-a-days,” Knapton said Wednesday morning after the third of the four days of camp this week. “In Wyoming, you can’t do anything within two weeks of practice, and we’ve done that before. We like to remind the players about physicals and all the stuff they have to do before two-a-days.”

New to the job in Laramie, Knapton said he needs to get going not only for that reason, but because Wyoming high school football is starting a week later than usual this season.

“This will do us a lot of good to start early and get the offense in,” he said. “This is about the third dose of running this, and we look pretty good. A new coach, a new system, we look OK.”

Much of what the Plainsmen are working on this week in camp, and previously this summer, are things they would have had to do in the first few days of fall drills. That puts them ahead, in that regard, Knapton said.

“We just wished that we had every kid out here,” Knapton said. “We’re going to get more kids coming out. If they don’t come out and continue doing stuff, they will be behind. Unfortunately this year, you only have a week and a half to play a game, so it will be a lot quicker.”

For the most part this week, Knapton said they are concentrating on putting his base offense in and running it right. The coaches and players were sporting t-shirts that said just that on the back: “Do it right, do it light; Do it wrong, do it long.”

“Right now we new doing that, so I am pleased to see our progress and where we are at with that,” he said. “We got a lot of things in that need to be in right now. I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape when he we get going with two-a-days. We’re at a point right now where we can line up and play, and we can look pretty good, just because we have been working on the same stuff now for three weeks. We’re not in bad shape right now.”

Physically, the extra work doesn’t hurt for the Plainsmen as well.

“We’ll get them more ready so they aren’t real sore during two-a-days. We’re trying to work our way up to that,” he said.

All-in-all, Knapton is pleased with the players he has out for the team, albeit always looking for more depth.

“We have quite a few freshmen out; surprisingly a lot of them went to the UW camp. We took 45 players to the Wyoming football camp, and that was quite a few for them,” Knapton said. “I’d like dot get that beefed up to a quite of few more, but that will come the longer I am here. We’ll get more kids out.

“I think we will be in good shape; we have some real good looking athletes who did a good job last year on JV, and we have some seniors who are doing a great job for us as leaders. I think it is all coming together. I’m pleased with how many we have and what we are doing and how many we have in the weight room.”

A key in off-season workouts is getting bigger, stronger and faster, Knapton said.

“I’ve been in there every day this summer,” he said. ‘Every day we’ve averaged 30 to 35 kids in there. It will help us get through the season and help us get ready to go.”

The Plainsmen will open the season on Aug. 29 at home against Steamboat Springs, Colo.