Shepard Hops to It on Opening Day of Football Practice

In the rain and extreme heat of the summer, Shepard football players dedicated themselves to offseason conditioning. On the first day of fall camp Wednesday, the Astros returned with a hop in their step.

And forget that temperatures were in the 70s.

The Astros already are pointing tward their Aug. 26 opener against Walter Payton College Prep. Sure, there are rough spots that need smoothing out during the first two and half weeks of practice.

But there also is this: Shepard is coming off its second consecutive winning season for the first time in decades. The Astros are hoping to extend that streak to three and they return some important pieces to the puzzle.

Two seniors, running back/linebacker John Kotis and wide receiver/safety Martice Weatherspoon, were excited to get back on the playing field now that the season is in sight.

"Of course, we're happy to come back," Weatherspoon said. "After having a nice season last year, I think it's going to be better this year. We have a lot of (seniors) that played last year. We're going to come back and play even harder."

Football is one of the shortest seasons in all of high school sports, with nine regular-season games on the schedule, but it has one of the longest off-seasons as a result.

"We worked hard during the off-season," Kotis said. "We came down here and gave it 100 percent every time."

"We went down to Illinois State to get some workouts with teams we don't normally see," Weatherspoon said. "They were pretty good, and we competed hard against them."

Practice teaches team discipline, which Shepard coach Dominic Passolano is pushing with his team both on and off the field.

"They only get a week off, but they are kids, and they forget things sometimes," he said. "We are re-enforcing things we worked on in the summer, but the learning curve should be moving faster because of all the hard work we put in. It's always good to go back and review the stuff we can't cover during the season."

Summer practices and conditioning went well for the Astros, according to Passolano. 

"We had a good summer, and the kids all worked hard on their conditioning," he said.

That conditioning will be put to the test as Shepard takes on two strong Public League programs to open the year: Hubbard is the Astros' opponent in Week 2.