Prep football teams ramp up intensity in first week of practice

Green Valley football coach Clay Mauro said the difference from his first day of practice last season to this season was “night and day.”

Entering his second season as the Gators’ coach, Mauro said he has a better grasp of where the team should be as practices begin and certain checkpoints that need to be met with the season in sight.

High school teams across Southern Nevada are preparing for the upcoming season with official practices beginning this week. Coaches are ramping up the intensity with the season three weeks away.

“It’s just finding the flow that you’re going to be feeling in the regular season,” Mauro said. “Keep that level of excitement high about the beginning of the season. We’re just trying to get them to understand how things are going to work, which is essentially to be as efficient as possible.”

Monday began with heat acclimation periods, with practices with helmets allowed by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Noncontact practices with helmets and shells were allowed beginning Wednesday. The first official day for fall sports practices and fully padded football practices is Saturday.

Teams can hold scrimmages beginning Aug. 11. Aug. 17 is the first day for fall sports games, with most local football teams playing their openers Aug. 18.

The offseason wasn’t entirely smooth sailing for Green Valley, which needed to replace 32 helmets that were denied by the manufacturer Riddell for not meeting its safety requirements. With the equipment issues settled, Mauro said having a full offseason with the players has allowed them to develop stronger team chemistry and build on their offseason training.

“Now, it’s just perfection and game-planning,” Mauro said. “We’re looking at that first game and saying, ‘Now that we have the teams set, we know our schemes, how are we going to attack this?’”

Centennial coach DJ Campbell is getting his first taste of the preparation for the season as a head coach. Campbell was previously an assistant at Canyon Springs and Centennial when the Bulldogs reached the Class 4A state title game in 2019.

The North Las Vegas native and Cheyenne graduate has plenty of football knowledge. A former standout defensive back in college at California, Campbell has NFL experience with four teams, including the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers.

Campbell has relied on help from former Centennial coach Dustin Forshee with off-the-field coaching responsibilities like getting players’ registration cleared. Campbell said with some players in the program spending the summer out of town, he hasn’t had his full roster to work with.

“At first I was kind of like, ‘Man, am I doing something wrong?’ But I’m not,” Campbell said.

Campbell said he’s looking to combine all of his football experience to get the most out of the time the players have to practice during the first week.

“We’re not trying to install a whole bunch of different plays and schemes and all types of things,” Campbell said. “We’re really focusing on doing a few things, but being really good at those few things and making sure we maximize the amount of reps that we have.”

With practices shifting to the afternoon, coaches are monitoring the heat. Palo Verde coach Joe Aznarez said the team has made personal water bottles a required piece of equipment to bring to practice every day.

“Some of those guys won’t take a drink when water is available. We force them to,” Aznarez said. “It’s not an optional thing to go get water. It’s a mandatory thing just like it would be a drill.”

Palo Verde participated in a summer camp at Southern Utah University where the players were able to practice in pads.

“To have that week to get ourselves ready for these practices, it’s kind of invaluable,” Aznarez said.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.