Plainsmen short on numbers, but not optimisim

Richard Anderson photos
The Plainsmen work on their conditioning on Monday during the first practice of the season. At bottom, head coach Bob Knapton begins his second season at the helm.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Bob Knapton and the Laramie Plainsmen have the attitude that you can only play 11 players at a time.

They just hope the best 11 players are out on the gridiron at a consistent pace.

The Plainsmen opened the 2009 season with the first practice Monday morning with a positive attitude, but a concern for depth. There were only about 50 players in grades 9-12 reporting for the first day.

“I’m a little concerned about numbers right now,” Knapton said. “A lot of these guys don’t have physicals or they didn’t get their stuff turned in. That’s disappointing. We have to start teaching them that they need to be ready to start when the season starts.”

At the same time, Knapton and seniors Jon Sorenson and Tyler English both think that the players out for the team are looking good.

“I think we came in sharp and crisp and other guys came in and filled in spots like quarterback and running back and really stepped up,” Sorenson said. “That’s what they are going to have to do, sophomores to the varsity level. It was good to see those guys come out and be crisp right away.”

With that said, physical fitness is a top priority for the Plainsmen this season.


“If we’re going to be little low in numbers, we’re going to be in shape,” Knapton said. “That’s our main plan now. We’re going to be in shape. You have to put 11 on the field, so the 11 we put on their will be in shape.”

English said they had more top players work out in the off-season and that should help them down the road.

“We came out and ran every morning, we’re in better shape and we’re looking more upbeat,” English said. “We’re going to have a lot of people playing both ways, so we need a lot of strength at the end of the fourth quarter to finish games. We have to put our best out there, so we have to be in shape.”

If the Plainsmen aren’t in shape as of yet, it won’t take long. They embark Tuesday on what has turned out to be a traditional journey to Camp Guernsey. They’ll work out three times a day until returning on Sunday.

“I think the guys who have been out there all along are looking pretty good,” Knapton said. “The guys that showed up in shape are ready. The ones who aren’t, we’re going to have to get them there.”

The trip is also an opportunity for team unity. There’s no television in Guernsey, no video games, basically nothing to do but eat and sleep football.

“There’s a lot of team building and we were a closer team the last time we came out of there,” said English, who last went two seasons ago as a sophomore. “We were definitely in better condition the last time we came out of there. It is fun to bring back the old traditions. Hopefully, we can put that back in, the winning tradition.”

For seniors like Sorenson, Camp Guernsey and the season as a whole is all about leadership. He said they have to not only lead by example, but help out the underclassmen any way that they can.

“We just have to be positive with the younger kids,” Sorenson said. “I’ve been around kids who just barked, so we have to help them out when we can, give them good motivation and good positive words, and I think they will come around.”

It will be a successful trip, Knapton said, if they come back to Laramie ahead of where they were at this point last season.

“We’re going three practices a day; I think that will do it,” he said. “When you go on one of these, you don’t get a lot of time off. There’s nothing to do at Camp Guernsey.”
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The Plainsmen open the season on Aug. 28 when they host Rock Springs.