Knapton getting Plainsmen to believe

Richard Anderson photos
Laramie High School senior quarterback Coleton Wilson (center) recites the Plainsmen Pledge before Monday's afternoon practice. At bottom, longtime Laramie assistant coach Gil Bradfield goes over some formations with some of his younger linemen.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Laramie Plainsmen football team is just three practices into the season and school doesn’t start for another week.

It’s pretty evident that the Plainsmen, under first-year head coach Bob Knapton, have some learning to do.

That’s no knock on their athletic ability or their play calling. Maybe what comes first for the Laramie players is learning to how to be successful again.

Winners of just 11 games in the last seven seasons, the Laramie High School football program has certainly had it struggles in recent years. The reasons … you might have to use your toes to count the ways.

One aspect that Knapton is trying to change is the mental wear and tear of the past few seasons. Early on in practice, and this will change once the team dons pads for the first time, a majority of the team is wearing t-shirts that say Plainsmen Pride on the front and a catch phase on the back that states “Do it right, Do it light; Do it wrong, Do it long.”

The Plainsmen huddle to begin and end all practices … nothing really out of the ordinary. They also begin and end each workout with a player reciting this Plainsmen Pledge.

“I am a Laramie Plainsmen. I am proud to wear the maroon and gold of Laramie High. I will always display courage and strength in all my athletic endeavors. I will have determination at all times. I will have confidence in myself, my team mates, and my coaches. I am a winner. I will always act like a winner both on and off the field. I will never give up. I will forever strive to be better. I have the one ingredient of a champion, pride. I am a champion.”

Knapton said competing at this level often begins with the right frame of mind.

“When I ever have taken over another school, we’d start a pledge,” he said. “First, you have to learn it, the words. Then you start believing it. We say it before practices and games to get the kids pumped up. Kids need something to rally around. You need to believe in yourself. I feel that if they start saying the pledge, then they start believe in it.”

Knapton said he likes where his players are at, just two days officially into the season. Even with little success over the years, he said they have a good base, mentally and physically, to work with.

“They are good, hardworking kids,” he said. “They have a sense of what is expected of them. They have a good sense of what we’ve been doing since camps. They have an aura about them that they want to win, they want to work hard. That’s good. It’s not like you are coming in and trying to get kids to do stuff that they have no mentality for. They have a good mentality of what hard work is and what it will take to win. That is a step in the right direction.”

So far, so good

While the season is in its infancy stage, Knapton likes its start and where it is going.

“I think things are going really well,” he said. “We have quite a few numbers out. Today, we had about 80 kids out. We’d like to get a few more freshmen out; I think they are sitting right around 25 to 30. The bulk of them are upper classmen right now. Looking at the kids, we have quite a few linemen out; we have good skilled people out. We have been doing the camps all summer, so that is really going to help us this year because we are starting a week late. Doing all of that camp stuff in the summer has us caught us up to where we should be.”

Physical aspect

The beginning of two-a-days. Any athlete who has been through them in any sport knows the grind they can be. A few of the Plainsmen played summer baseball, many others participated in the various camps that Knapton either hosted or took his team to. That has made a difference for many of the athletes.

“I thought we would have a little bit of a drop-off (Tuesday morning), but we actually had more kids. That’s a good plus. I think (Wednesday) will be the big tell-tell practice. Usually your third day is your worst soreness day. We’ll have gear on Wednesday, so that will add to it. You have to know when to taper off a little bit, to get into that little light at the end of the tunnel. I might give them Wednesday morning off because it will be our big 40-40 day. They are going to run 40 40s.”

Zero Week

The Plainsmen are of two teams in the state that are actually participating in a meaningful game on the weekend of Aug. 29, which has been dubbed “Zero Week.” The other game will pit Saratoga and West Grand, Colo. Most of the teams are in jamborees or playing partial games that don’t count in the standings or in the Wyoming High School Activities Association’s power ratings.

Laramie’s game on Aug. 29 against Steamboat Springs, Colo., apparently counts, although Knapton admits it is confusing to him and the rest of the state.

“It’s unfortunate because I know a lot of coaches around Wyoming are a little upset because they didn’t find out until July the days we started,” he said. “Every seven years, we start a week late and this is that seventh year. There’s a lot to do, to put everything in.”

Colorado teams began practice on Aug. 11, so the game definitely counts for Steamboat Springs.

“When we play that first game next Friday, we’re going to go against a team that has already been practicing a week and a half now,” Knapton said. “They are going to have everything in and they are going to have a scrimmage under their belt and we won’t."

Knowing of their early start and his desire to get things going quickly after he took the job last spring, Knapton and the Plainsmen have been busy with camps. With that, he has been able to get a lot done in putting in the base offense and defense. But the late practice time is still hurting his team.

“We’re kind of short-changing the kids a little bit, because we really don’t get to evaluate them,” he said. “We can’t start hitting each other until Thursday, and a week from then, we’re playing. You’re cutting down to where you usually have three weeks to two weeks to evaluate kids.”

Saturday scrimmage

The Plainsmen will do a little “on the fly” intra-squad scrimmage Saturday night beginning at 8 p.m. at Deti Stadium. Knapton said that if everything goes well, they’ll go as long as they can. If things don’t go well (especially with injuries), they’ll cut it short.

“We’re going to try to divide up the best that we can, and we can do that pretty well,” he said. “Once again, it’s less than a week before your first game. You want to get that in so you can get that concept of hitting and get a look at your kids. But you also have a game plan and you don’t want to get a lot of people hurt.”