FOOTBALL: Trojans optimistic as camp opens

WORTHINGTON -- Head coach Dennis Hale doesn't like the season's first football practice a whole lot.

"There's just too much time standing around," he said. "I'll be glad to get the first day out of the way."

High-school football season officially began Monday as the 2009 version of the Worthington Trojans took to the practice field for the beginning of two-a-days.

And lucky for Hale, for the next two weeks, his team won't have much time for standing around.

On Sept. 4, the Trojans will open the season against the same team that ended their run in the opening round of last year's section tournament.

Worthington is chomping at the bit to avenge the 21-14 postseason loss to Fairmont as well as another 35-19 defeat to the Cardinals in last season's opening game.

"Fairmont is always a big game," Hale said during a break between practice sessions. "We've got a lot of kids coming back. I think going into it we're more optimistic than we have been the past couple of years."

That first game will be a major test for the Trojans, who are trying to return to the upper tier of the Southwestern Conference.

"Over the years we've been one of the better teams in the league," said Hale. "Four years ago we made a run at state; the last three haven't been as good."

Hale knows returning to the top means competing with some talented teams, including back-to-back games Oct. 9 at Luverne -- last year's Class AA runner-up -- and Oct. 15 against Marshall.

In order to do that, the head coach is looking to mix a little bit of old-school Trojan football with some of the new style.

With leading rusher Mitchell Jensen returning behind an experienced offensive line, Hale acknowledged the need for a more run-oriented philosophy than Worthington has used in recent seasons.

"We ran and ran and ran for umpteen years, (before) we went spread a couple of years ago," he said. "Our running back returns, and we've got some big, agile kids that give us the potential to be pretty good on the line of scrimmage. I think that we'll hit the holes better, so potentially we can run the ball better."

However, that doesn't mean the coaching staff is planning to ditch its no-huddle, spread formation anytime soon.

"We went to the spread a couple of years ago and we like it," Hale said.

But he also said graduation left holes that still need to be filled.

"We had really good skill people a year ago. We lost our quarterback, and we need to replace a lot of our wide receivers."

Defensively, the Trojans will try and shore up a defense that allowed at least 20 points in every game last season.

"We weren't really physical up front, so we didn't have a great win/loss record," Hale said.

The coach thinks more experience in the trenches should help improve last year's 2-7 mark.

"Our line has a chance to be good, and that's a key to having a good football team."

But Hale was wary of making too many predictions. For him, it's still too early to tell. It is, after all, just the first week of practice.

"Thursday, we'll put pads on," he said. "Guys that look good with no pads sometimes don't look good with pads. We'll let scrimmage decide on that."