A lot of work has been accomplished over the spring and summer months by players and coaches alike preparing for the start of the upcoming high school football season.

First-year Comets Head Coach Grayson Throckmorton and his staff have worked with players with weightlifting, conditioning and have installed the base offensive and defensive play packages the Comets will use this season.

Today, the real work and the stretch drive toward the start of the new season begins.

Throckmorton starts what he is calling football camp today, with players being in-house from 3:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. for what will essentially be a pair of practices. Camp will be held with those same hours Monday through Friday each week through the teams first pre-season test, the annual VHSL Benefit Game against Buckingham County High School on Aug. 18 here at Tuck Dillard Memorial Stadium.

While there will be plenty of work ahead, Throckmorton says he is glad to reach this point.

Relieved is not quite the right word, Throckmorton said, but I am at the point now where I am at my normal. Before, this, it has been work putting in very brand new things. Now, it is where I was in my other programs from year to year because I have gotten the new things installed and I have gotten the working area straight. Were at a point now where its starting to be a normal process.

Comets players will be exposed to a variety of things during todays opening day of camp and the days of camp that will follow.

There will be a whole gamut of things that we will do, Throckmorton pointed out. There will be a little bit of weight room, there is going to be some board work, some character lessons, field work on the field, conditioning, learning and reviewing the Xs and Os, the whole nine yards.

Comets players will be in helmets when workouts start today. On Monday, players will don helmets and shoulder pads. Next Wednesday or Thursday, players will go to full pads.

Throckmorton says he feels good about the players heading into todays opening day of camp.

I feel really good with our core kids, the 38 to 45 kids that have been here three days a week all summer long, he pointed out.

On the flip side, I know were going to get a handful of guys that havent been here all summer, and we are going to have to adjust and get them caught up to speed in a short amount of time. The good thing is the guys that have been here will be able to kind of coach them and help them along because they have already learned some of the things and can relay those things as were putting them in for them.

The first-year Comets head coach says he feels good about what the knowledge the players have picked up with regard to the offensive and defensive play packages that will be used.

Overall, I feel very good about where we are, particularly with the offense, Throckmorton remarked.

We have all of the base packages in, and we will be able to go in with the defense kind of on an even keel. Then, its growing and polishing from there, conditioning, getting into shape and fine-tuning things with the drills and things were going to do to try to make the overall program better.

Throckmorton noted that there will be continued focus on conditioning.

Im still going to wean in some of the conditioning, he explained.

Im not nave enough to think they (the players) are coming in here in tip-top shape. They are coming in with a base. We are going to be doing some things, and things will intensify greatly.

I will give them two days to get acclimated a little bit, and then I will add my five corners finishing drill the third day, he added.

Its pretty common for a lot of programs to do some type of finishing drill like that.

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