Summer went by a little slower on the west side.
That’s how it had to have felt, anyway, for the Bronchos at Odessa High — anxious, since last November, to start new on another season.
Finally, Monday, fall camp opened at Joe Coleman Field.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Bronchos senior Chase Webster said.
Webster spoke as the sun set on Coleman behind the high school, just after that first full team workout which officially opened the new football year — and, for Odessa High, officially put a winless 2016 season in the past while making 2017 the present.
For Bronchos head coach Danny Servance, his staff and his players, there’s plenty of work left to be done.
But for them, they said, it felt good just to get back on the field Monday and start taking steps forward.
“I couldn’t even sleep last night, just anticipating the first day of workouts,” Servance said. “I think, overall, we were pleased with how we started. There’s still some things, of course, that you have to work on, especially with it being a first practice.
“Our concern is that you’ve got to get better each day.”
The Bronchos, and other 6A teams across the state, opened camp Monday with a workout in shorts and T-shirts, as the UIL mandates schools go through four workouts without contact before pads and contact drills are allowed on the fifth practice of the fall.
As for how Monday’s conditioning workout went for the Bronchos, the coaches won’t know for sure, of course, until they see just how conditioned those players are moving forward.
“Let’s see how we rebound after the first day, when we’re a little bit sore, and then it gets worse,” Servance said. “The third day, you’re a little bit sore — more sore. We’re going to lift weights in the morning, so their legs will be a little bit shoddy in the afternoon. So we’ll see how we’ll respond.
“That’s what we’re talking about,” he said, drawing the comparison to moments to come in the season. “The bigger the event, the bigger the response has to be. That’s the only thing that we can do to control the outcome, is respond in a positive way.”
Monday, the Bronchos had their first chance to since the spring to put forward their response to last year’s struggles.
“Honestly, I think about it almost every day — how the past season went,” said Webster, a returning captain. “You just want to get your revenge. But you’ve got to take it one day at a time.
“You crawl before you walk, so you take it one day at a time.”
Junior quarterback Trey Smith said he saw a lot of that attitude in his team Monday.
Amid first-day mistakes, there was effort.
“Last year was sluggish. Today, we weren’t really sluggish,” Smith said. “We had a lot of mistakes, but at least they were mistakes going full speed. That’s really all we could ask for. If you’re going to mess up, mess up full speed, going 100-percent.
“Today we came out ready and a lot of people excited to get out here and get back to playing.”
After four noncontact workouts, the Bronchos will be set to don pads Friday as camp moves forward before the team’s first scrimmage Aug. 25 with El Paso Montwood in Van Horn, ahead of the season opener Aug. 31 at Lubbock Monterey — where, finally, the new, 2017 season will kick off for OHS.
“It’s been a very long summer,” junior defensive tackle Keevan Majors said. “We’re ready to get back here and change our season.”
For the Bronchos, Monday was the start of just that.
“We’re not just sitting in the office, making plans and talking about it,” Servance said. “We’re now out and applying what we’ve planned.
“And it’s always good when a good plan comes together.”
