It was an afterthought for first year coach John Meeks — tradition would continue as usual, the Louisa County football team starts practice at midnight August 1st. Midnight Madness isn’t going anywhere.
“That’s the goal every year,” Meeks said. “You always want to be the first team on the field, the last one off.”
And so when the Lions, the 2010 Jefferson District champions, officially start practice, it means that the 2011 football season has begun. For one of the most football-mad schools in Central Virginia, the eccentric practice went as well as hoped.
“They seem to remember everything we did in camp and looked pretty crisp for day one,” Meeks said. “Obviously it’s not perfect by any means, but for day one, we’re overly pleased with how crisp they were, what they remembered, the attention to detail they had from my camp 10-11 days ago. I was wondering how much carryover that would have.”
Like so many teams in the area, the first few days of camp. the buzz among fans is about the turnover in players. Few squads graduated the talent that Louisa did last season, but that’s a challenge that Meeks said both he and his players more than welcome. For the seniors on this team, the first days of camp are an opportunity to establish their roles as leaders.
“We have the same goals as last year, the same mindset,” said senior lineman J.D. Dennis. “It’s really a matter of making sure we come together as a unit, as a team and trying to get the job done by any means possible.”
The Lions kick off of two-a-days not only marks the beginning of football, it also officially launchs a new-look Jefferson District campaign. Former opponents Goochland and William Monroe have both dropped down to Group A to the James River District and Bull Run District respectively, while arch nemesis Orange County has been bumped up to Group AAA in the Commonwealth District. An eight team district over the last two years, the JD is now down to six members with Powhatan taking on the role of new kid on the block.
For the returning JD members, the change in the district means a significant change in schedule as athletic directors had two more out-of-district games to fiddle with. For Louisa County last year it’s only non-JD opponents were Eastern View and Courtland. This season the Lions add Spotsylvania and South Lakes to the schedule.
Louisa finished up its Monday practice with another session at 8 a.m. as the team spent the remainder of the night at the school.
From there, the rest of Central Virginia’s football programs came to life with schools like Charlottesville hitting the field in the morning or Madison County taking an evening session to begin the season.
Of the local public schools last season Louisa, Madison, Buckingham County, Monticello, Goochland, Western Albemarle and Orange County all qualified for the postseason with Buckingham, Louisa and Monticello all winning at least one regional playoff game.
