LIVE BLOG: Fall Practice Under Way

Eight Northfield High School teams — football, soccer and cross country for the boys and volleyball, tennis, soccer, cross country and swimming for the girls—kicked off fall practice at various venues around Northfield on Monday, most of them getting going bright and early Monday morning. Here's a brief snapshot of what each team was up to at its first official day of fall workouts.

6:40 p.m.

Spring Creek soccer complex

While their future teammates spent the second practice session scrimmaging with roster spots on the line, 13 of Northfield's returning varsity players played a game of eight-on-eight—with two alumni and volunteer assistant coach Simon Tyler joining in to fill out the teams.

After the game, when Tyler realized several players were not wearing shin pads, he gathered the Raiders up and shared a tale about his brother, who suffered a leg injury and required stitches after taking a spike to the shin while he wasn't wearing shin pads in a game.

Some of the veteran players, most of whom had heard the story before, accused Tyler of embellishing the number of stitches his brother had received.

6:55 p.m.

Spring Creek soccer complex

Forgive the members of the Northfield girls soccer team if they're a little confused after their first day. They started out the day—the seniors at 7:30 a.m.—with endurance and speed testing at the middle school track.

Then in the evening, they made their way to Spring Creek soccer complex to play ... tennis.

Tennis soccer, actually. Two-girl teams lined up across from one another on a "court" marked by cones and with a crude rope net running down the middle.

"You serve with your hands, and you're allowed two bounces," Raiders coach Troy Cohrs explained.

2:30 p.m.

Northfield High School training room

Injuries are a part of sports, as Kohl DeGroot found out on the first day of football practice Monday. DeGroot found himself in the training room Monday afternoon to get his sprained ankle wrapped and taped.

"We want to keep the swelling down," athletic trainer John Sand said.

2:10 p.m.

Northfield High School gym

The NHS volleyball squad was one of a number of teams that had two practices Monday. The Raiders had age-group practices in the morning—one for freshmen and one for girls in grades 10-12—then brought back the varsity hopefuls for a second session in the afternoon.

With nine seniors lost to graduation and few returners with significant varsity experience, coach Tim Torstenson is focusing on the basics.

"Right now we're working on serve receive," he said. "We're doing a lot of serve receive and passing; those are areas we need to work on.

"Also we're getting a chance to see who works well together. A lot of these girls haven't played together, and that's important considering we have a match in a week and three days."

1:05 p.m.

Northfield High School tennis courts

After a full morning workout, about a dozen Raiders tennis players returned to the courts Monday afternoon for an optional second workout, a session more about having fun than about training for the upcoming season.

“(Fun) is really important,” coach Mark Johnson said. “That's the biggest thing when kids participate in athletics. They want to have fun. That's what it's all about.”

Some players paired up and squared off in doubles matches, while one group played team singles, where players rotate on each end of the court after each point.

For the “official” morning practice, about 36 girls showed up.

11:25 a.m.

Northfield Middle School pool

The first day of practice was a mixed bag for the Gators at the pool that included everything from basic “get to know you” activities to complex breathing techniques.

Coach Doug Davis illustrated what he was looking for on a white board, then yelled encouragement as the girls worked on technique in the water.

One drill involved working on shoulder roll, rather than the swimmers just turning their heads when they take a breath.

“We'll swim for about an hour and a half, nothing too intense,” Davis said of the first day's workout.

The Gators also took care of some administrative tasks, like taking orders for suits and caps for the coming season.

“You don't want to order (caps) early, because they have names on them, and if you have three or four girls who don't come out, you've wasted money,” Davis explained.

10:30 a.m.

Northfield High School

The Raiders cross country teams' day ended in front of the high school after a productive first day.

“We got aggressive for the first day,” Raiders coach Scott Peterson said. “We ran a range of anywhere from three to nine miles. Some of them trained well over the summer, and we want to keep that momentum going.”

Another cause for optimism for both the boys and girls teams this season was the turnout.

“The numbers are huge,” Peterson said. “By tomorrow we'll have over 80 kids, boys and girls, so that's a very positive thing there.”

9:50 a.m.

Northfield High School football field

For the first three days of football practice, players are not allowed to wear pads, only helmets. So it will still be a few more days before full-contact drills. But the Raiders did get to line up for some 11-on-11 drills, which is not the norm for the three-day conditioning period.

“We just like to give the guys a feel of some of our basic plays,” Raiders coach Bubba Sullivan said. “They go a lot of conditioning, but this way the get to know what football feels like again.”

The Raiders did wrap up their morning session with a running drill, sprinting up and down the field in 20-yard chunks before breaking for lunch.

The Raiders have 55 juniors and seniors out for the team this year.

7:30 a.m.

Northfield Middle School track

Usually, being a senior comes with a lot of perks. But that's not the case with the Northfield girls soccer team, at least not Monday, when the team's 14 seniors got to be the first ones out of the gate for conditioning tests.

Each grade gets a one-hour time slot, during which time they take the “Cooper Test” and the “300” test. For the Cooper, girls run as many laps as they can in 12 minutes. In the 300, they sprint back and forth between two cones, slightly less than 25 meters apart, six times for a total of 300 meters. They run the 300 twice, and are required to average 75 seconds for their two attempts to be eligible for the varsity team.

“I don't want to give (the seniors) any breaks,” Northfield girls soccer coach Troy Cohrs said. “They should always be our leaders, so they get to be our leaders out of bed the first morning.”

All 14 seniors met the standard in both drills.