News and notes from around the Metro

By PrepsKC staff
Posted: August 8, 2012 - 3:08 PM



PrepsKC will bring you the most comprehensive coverage of high school football of any media outlet in the country. Check here daily for news and notes from camps from all over the Metro.
Blue Springs South
The Jaguars enter the season with the title of defending champs but unlike the NFL, high school teams change from year to year. Blue Springs South is no different and could see as many as 17 new starters take the field in week No. 1.
Last season there was another new group for the Jaguars but the unheralded group that started the season became the best team in the state by the end of the year.
This year South coach Greg Oder said his team is just trying find out who they are and find ways to improve.
“Everybody says we are the defending champs but this team hasn’t played a game yet,” Oder said. “It’s different in the pros where everybody is back. We are just a team trying to get better right.
“Everyone’s attitude is very good. They work hard but they forget just how hard it is to win a game on our schedule or in the city. You kind of have to refresh their memory on how hard it is to win a football game.”
The Jaguars open the season at home against Truman.
Raytown
This summer has been one of the hottest in recent years and teams have spent the summer trying to find ways to work around it.
When practice started Monday morning teams were greeted with cooler temperatures which were much different than what they had seen in the previous weeks.
For Raytown the heat may not be as big of an issue as some of the new schools. The Blue Jays play at venerable Ted Chitwood Stadium on the campus of Raytown High school. The locker rooms that teams use are underneath the home stands don’t have air conditioning and the players have been using them all summer.
“It was good to get a break from the heat,” Raytown South coach Kevin Page said. “A benefit of coaching at an old school that doesn’t have a brand new air conditioned locker room, our kids are ready. I think our kids are more prepared for the heat than any school you will find around because we don’t have AC in our facilities. They are used to the heat.
If the weather continues to stay hot the Blue Jays might just be right at home.
Fort Osage
The Indians are off to a good start after a slow start on the first day of practice.
Fort Osage ran into a problem that plagues many schools this time of year, lack of physicals. Without proper physical players are unable to participate in practice.
After having smaller numbers on day one the Indians were more at full strength on the second and third days of practice.
“The second day was much better,” Fort Osage coach Ryan Schartz said. “We are a whole different team today than we were yesterday because we had 10 or 15 kids show up with physicals. We actually look like a football team today and obviously we are going to get a little extra conditioning for those boys.”
The first week Schartz said his coaches try to stress the basics in the first week and it has been going well early in camp.
“You just try to go back to fundamentals,” Schartz said. “I think the most important thing about football are fundamentals and technique and not try to out-smart people with X’s and O’s. Just do the little things right by beating blocks and executing blocks. We just try to keep it real simple the first five days or so and get really good at working technique.”