High school football, day 1: School (of hard knocks) is in session

The sun was beating down as hard as ever as schools across the Sac-Joaquin Section opened fall camp Monday, marking the official start of football season. While the Friday night lights may seem far away, players and coaches will say this: It will be here before you know it. Mother Nature wasn't kind to the players Monday, as near triple-digit temperatures greeted those who returned to the gridiron following a three-week dead period. To beat the heat, Placer High School held its first practice in the morning. The Hillmen have considerable talent to replace but have been happy with the progress of the team this summer. "It feels like we're back to Placer football," coach Joey Montoya said. "The pandemic hit us hard, and I think it really put last year's team in a hole. I don't like to make excuses, but facts are facts, and where we were starting last year doesn't compare to where we're starting this year." Montoya and his staff know the four weeks until opening night will fly by and wants to make sure his squad is ready. "We film every practice and film doesn't lie," Montoya said. "So there they see their sins, so to speak, on the field, right away." Placer is going into this season with a load of talent, and with that comes expectations. Montoya knows while his team is aware of the preseason hype, he keeps the team focused on getting better and is taking things one week at a time. "We just focus on ourselves and really focus on getting better and, honestly, we don't even talk about rankings or winning or anything like that," Montoya said. "We don't talk about August or September at all. We just talked about ourselves and getting better." Del Oro opened fall camp Monday afternoon, taking what head coach Mike Maben calls the Bill Walsh approach to practice. "We practice in the heat and prepare for the heat so that come game time, it doesn't feel so bad," Maben said while dressed in sweats and long sleeves. "I do appreciate that we got a full team out here that despite the heat, they're coming out, working hard, grinding. We're trying to stay on top of their hydration and taking it a little bit easy today but just trying to get everyone back into football season." Del Oro is another team that has seen a massive influx of talent compared to last year's roster, but in a league as daunting as the Sierra Foothill League, Maben knows his team may have some players flying under the radar. "We have a couple of sophomores that are coming up and hopefully going to see some significant playing time. I don't think too many people know about them. They might turn some heads," Maben said. "We'll have a pretty strong backfield, and I think we have a pretty solid offensive line to kind of help them out." With the first official day of practice also comes mistakes, which are inevitable so early in the season. Fumbles, false starts, dropped passes and missed signals plagued both squads Monday, but that is to be expected. "It's always a positive when they come out fired up and ready to go. Day one's always good, but there are mistakes," Maben said. "We're looking forward to day eight to see if they're still out here grinding, still out here giving 100 percent. If they can do that and carry it into the season, it's gonna be a good year." Del Oro will have its intersquad scrimmage Aug. 5 while Placer will scrimmage the next day. Both teams open the season at home Aug. 19.