High school football starts two-a-days

By Melissa McCaghren

Slatonite GM

The first day of August also brought  dozens of youth all around the State to their first day of two-a-days practice for the 2022-23 school year.

The Slaton Tigers and Roosevelt Eagles were among the teams who woke up early to put on helmets and practice running and basic drills.

Tackling and other contact will be later in the week when they finish the acclimitzation period per University Scholastic League guidelines.

For Slaton, the first day of two-a-days also brought the first day of a new leader in Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Jacob Dangerfield.

Dangerfield, who was hired to the position near the end of last school year, said he was looking forward to the challenge.

“I hope we can teach these young men to be great at everything they do, increase their mental toughness and focus and build great character,” he said.

He added the first day of practice also brought a lot of positives for the Tiger team. “(It was a) good turn out for the first day – great energy and enthusiasm was high,” he said.

“They were introduced to our base defense and offense, they played fast and had lots of conditioning.”

He added this was a great time of year, and what he saw so far of the team bodes well for the season. “The sky’s the limit for these Tigers,” said Dangerfield.

The Tigers’ first scrimmage will be next Friday (Aug. 12), here against Stanton. Junior Varsity will play at 5 p.m., while varsity plays at 6. They will then have an away scrimmage Aug. 18 against Seagraves.

The Tigers finished fourth in District last year and were eliminated by Bushland in the Bi-District round.

For more information, please read the Thursday edition of The Slatonite.