Moran athletes get practices underway

By Sam Waller

Low numbers are a fact of life at Moran, and it’s having an impact on the first week of preseason practice for fall sports.

The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs both began with less than the expected complement of athletes, which could cause some delays.

The football team began practice Monday, Aug. 1 with just four players in attendance. Coach John Hughes expects to field a team, but the first scrimmage date may be in jeopardy.

“I’m going to have six guys again, but two of them are missing,” Hughes said. “One of them went on vacation and invited his compadre to go with him.”

The big problem there is it could prevent Moran from conducting its scheduled scrimmage at Trent on Thursday, Aug. 11. All players must go through a five-day acclimation period before beginning contact drills. The late arrivals won’t be eligible to scrimmage if they don’t report this week.

“It’s the disadvantage of having a small school with very few numbers,” Hughes said.

Another problem may force Moran to move its scrimmage against Lueders-Avoca, scheduled for Friday, Aug. 19.

“We have been battling hogs all summer long at the stadium, and they have torn up the field,” Hughes said. “We’re trying to get it back into shape, but I don’t want to risk an injury because of it.”

When the Bulldogs do begin the season Friday, Aug. 26 against Benjamin, they will be working with a four-day school week. Hughes has a plan in place for keeping his players occupied on game days.

“We’ll bring the kids up about noon, feed them lunch, go through some things, watch game film, then we can load up and head off to where we’ve got to go,” he said. “I’ll have them up here, take care of them, and get some stuff accomplished you couldn’t do on a normal Friday with classes going on.”

Hughes announced that all junior high games will be played at 5:00 p.m. on Fridays before the varsity games. Hughes said the move will help ease problems with availability of officials.

Girls Sports

The Lady Bulldogs began practice in cross country and volleyball Monday with the same athletes filling both rosters.

The volleyball team will scrimmage Saturday, Aug. 6 at Munday, before opening the regular season Tuesday, Aug. 9 in Rotan. Moran will play in the Benjamin tournament Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 11-13.

Girls coach Jo Hise was also missing some athletes earlier this week, but expects eight to 10 girls to participate this fall.

“I haven’t seen everybody I was anticipating show up – I’ve got some who are still out of town – but the ones I’ve had have been diligent to show up and give me the best that they have,” Hise said.

The Lady Bulldogs will have three seniors to help carry the load.

“We did a timed mile run Monday, and they weren’t bad times,” Hise said. “I do have to get several back in shape because they weren’t able to be here this summer, but we’re trying to hit the ground running.”

This season, Class 1A teams will compete in their own districts. Last year, Moran was in a Class 2A district with Albany and Hawley.

“We’re looking forward to that,” said Hise. “We’re in a district with Rising Star, Strawn, and Gorman, but Gorman has already told us they will not have a team.”