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Bob Bellard walked off the Bryan Vikings' practice field Monday with a little bounce in his step.
"I'm so happy to be coaching football again," Bellard said. "It's been a long summer. I was really proud of the kids. I thought they came back in pretty good shape."
A breeze cooled the Vikings' evening practice, their second workout on the team's first day of camp.
"Mother Nature took care of us this evening," Bellard said, smiling. "We had a little breeze and it was really pretty nice. I told them I'd [trade] two hours tonight for 30 minutes in the morning, and they were trying to figure out whether that was a good deal or a bad deal. They were nervous about committing to the extra hours tonight."
Bellard said he had almost 60 freshmen and 120 players who are sophomores, juniors or seniors. He's expecting 20 to 30 more to be added at each level.
"We're missing a few of our younger guys and we have to run them down, but for the most part the guys who finished the spring really doing a good job are here," Bellard said. "They are busting it and getting after it so I am pretty pleased."
The weather, which has hovered around 100 degrees for much of the summer, was not a major factor on the first day of workouts until late in the morning practice.
"It was pretty good until the last 10 or 15 minutes and I thought the temperature went up about 10 degrees in a minute," Bellard said. "Between 10:50 and 11, when we finished workouts, it got hot fast."
In the evening varsity workouts, that was not a problem. Bellard said a lot of offense was put into place the opening day, but the defense was kept fairly basic.
"I though we threw and caught the ball the pretty well in the afternoon," Bellard said. "I thought we looked sharp on our routes and thought K.T. [Kesnick Taylor] was sharp throwing the football. I think we are going to have a great receiving corps. We've got to get the ball to them."
It was fun, but there's plenty of work to be done.
"Our execution is one of those things that can always improve," Bellard said. "We didn't pitch when we had some option decisions, but it's the first day."
