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When Ryan Pearson’s team captains at Princeton talk, he listens.
The Tigers’ six captains all felt the need to get out on the practice field to run over plays and Pearson was more than happy to oblige, calling an audible for newly scheduled “mini-camp” on Tuesday morning following weights.
Pearson said the Tigers are driven having been unable to get past the state quarterfinals the last three years.
“They said, ‘We want to be out there.’ ... So that shows the kind of leadership we have amongst the captains.”
— Ryan Pearson, Princeton coach
“We have a very, very driven group that kind of has a bad taste in their mouth,” Pearson said. “So they came to me and said, ‘We want to do more on the field stuff in the month of June,’ because we never have. We always pretty much leave it for baseball, basketball or whatever the other kids are doing.
“They said, ‘We want to be out there.’ It wasn’t something the coaches did, because it wasn’t on our calendar. It was kind of an impromptu thing from the captains. So that shows the kind of leadership we have amongst the captains.”
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PHS senior Cade Odell, who serves as captain along with classmates Arthur Burden, Ace Christiansen and Noah LaPorte and junior Casey Etheridge, said it was all about getting better.
“We all talked to him and told him we realize it’s probably better for us to get out here and work out,” he said. “It’s going to help us just visually learn it. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It will help us more before the season.”
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The Tigers will gear up full steam following the “dead” week over the 4th of July holiday.
A two-day mini-camp is set for July 15-16 followed by a joint practice/scrimmage with Washington High School on July 18 at Little Siberia.
Washington is coached by Tiger alum Todd Stevens, who is taking over as the Panthers’ head coach this season from longtime coach Darrell Crouch.
The Tigers’ annual 7 on 7/Linemen Challenge is set for Saturday, July 20 starting at 9 a.m. held at Bryant Field and little Siberia.
Team camp follows the week of July 22-26, meeting from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 to 11 a.m. on Friday.
Pearson gives the Tigers an extra week off (two total) leading up to the start of fall practices on Monday, Aug. 12.