No longer new and expecting to be much improved, the Rudder football team will begin preparations for its second varsity season Monday morning.
The Rangers will join the rest of the Brazos Valley football teams below Class 5A in starting preseason workouts Monday. A&M Consolidated and Bryan will begin drills one week later after opting to participate in spring practice.
Area volleyball programs also will open workouts Monday, preparing for scrimmages later in the week and season openers Aug. 11.
At Rudder, preseason drills signal the start of a school year full of second-times-around. Rudder opened last year and competed at the Class 3A varsity level despite having only sophomores and freshmen.
It was a difficult start for the football program, which went 0-8 competing against teams comprised primarily of seniors and juniors.
Coach C.M. Pier believes the learning experiences from last year combined with a good offseason should pay dividends in the program's second season.
"We are bigger, stronger and faster," Pier said. "We've got another year of maturity under our belts, and hopefully that's going to translate into some wins and better play. The workout tempo, the intensity ... all of that was new to the kids last year. They will be a lot more comfortable with the whole process, as will the coaches."
Rudder will begin practice at 7 a.m. and finish around 12:45 p.m., with a one-hour break in the middle. It's the same schedule the Rangers followed last August.
The biggest change Pier has made is having his assistant coaches concentrate on either offense or defense instead of doing both.
"We've been getting ready, planning practices and setting up the schedule," Pier said. "This year it's a lot smoother than last year. Then, we didn't really know our personnel, what they can and can't do. We're not at a point yet where we can truly go with two platoons like I would like -- we just don't have enough personnel yet -- but we're getting there, too."
Last year's most successful playoff teams from the Brazos Valley in football included state quarterfinalists Navasota and Calvert in UIL and state semifinalist Brenham Christian in TAPPS. Franklin, Bremond and Normangee reached the regional semifinal round.
The first four days of practice will be noncontact. Teams will be allowed to don full uniforms and begin contact work Friday, with scrimmages starting Aug. 15.
Week Zero games can be played Aug. 27-29.
Four new head coaches will direct their first preseason workouts at Brazos Valley schools: Blake Evans at St. Joseph, Rick Rhoades with Cameron, Craig Jentsch at Milano, and Matt Tarbutton for Brenham Christian.
Volleyball coaches at Bryan, Consol and Rudder plan to use as much as possible of their UIL allotment of five hours per day. Rudder and Bryan will go through three workouts per day, and play their first scrimmages Friday. Consol will hold two practices each day before scrimmaging on Saturday.
All three local teams will open the regular season with home matches Aug. 11.
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Rudder's opening volleyball workouts will be Monday-Wednesday at Davila Middle School due to work on the gym floor at Rudder High School.
Rudder, which will field a varsity, JV and freshman team this year, will work out from 9-11 a.m., 1:30-3 p.m. and 4-5:30 p.m. Players may stay at the gym between sessions if necessary, and there will be adult supervision.
All players must have a physical for the 2009-10 school year on file with the school trainer, who will do new physicals Monday from 6:45-7:15 a.m. at the Rudder field house.
Players must wear athletic clothes and shoes for the workouts.
For more information, call coach Jacky Pence at 255-0361 or e-mail her at jpence@bryanisd.org.