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High School Sports

August 17, 2008

Getting acclimated

Burt, Burton getting to know new teams

Ron Booth

DUNCAN — Both coaches are in a new spot, but like most head football coaches, Central High’s Stoney Burt and Empire’s Keith Burton are upbeat in the early going of the preseason.

Both Burt and Burton are going into the first year as head coach at their respective schools, and had high praise for their teams.



CENTRAL HIGH


First-year Central High football coach Stoney Burt is liking what he’s seeing out of his Bronchos so far in practice.

“We’re doing really good,” Burt said. “We’ve been working on conditioning, fundamentals and technique.”

Even though there hasn’t been any true contact, Burt said that he likes what he sees out of his team offensively.

“What I’m really impressed with is that the kids are in good shape,” he said. “We’ve been running them quite a bit. A lot of people in the community have been telling me that they haven’t seen them run this much.”

The Bronchos skipper said that his team has the ability to run when it counts, as well.

“We’ve got some speed,” Burt said. “A lot of it is going to be new to me, because I’ve only coached 11-man before, but I think it can be an advantage. We still have a traditional 80 by 40 field, so I don’t know how much of an advantage it will be here, but it certainly could be an advantage.”

On, defense, Burt has also liked what he’s seen.

“From what I can see, we’ve got some kids with speed and aggression,” he said. “You can’t tackle, but you can still go pop the bag in drills. From what I’ve seen, we’ve got some kids that are aggressive.”

After being out of coaching since 2004, Burt said that being back on the field has been good for him.

“It has been a big boost for me,” Burt said. “It is a lot more fun being out here with these kids than going to the same old job every day. I think it helps a guy stay young.”

The Bronchos will host their first scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. Friday against Cement.



EMPIRE


After seeing his new team work out in pads for two days, Bulldog head coach Keith Burton came away encouraged by what he had seen.

The majority of the work done in the first three days of practice had been on the offensive side of the ball, putting in the running game and a smattering of the passing game. Once the pads came on, it was time to see where his team was on the other side of the ball.

“The biggest thing I was looking for was to see if we could get lined up right,” Burton said. “Things were better than I expected. On the second and third day of practice, they looked better but I wasn’t sure what we would look like when the pads came on.

“We still have a ways to go, especially with the passing game. We spent most of our time last week putting in the basic running plays.”

One area of strength that has Burton encouraged is the offensive line. When he took the job, he was aware that Empire had several key skill position players returning but was unsure about the line. Now he feels that area could be an area of strength for the team.

“The line is better than I thought it would be,” Burton said. “It takes time to develop a good line but right now I am pleased with where we are at.”

The surprises for Burton are not limited to the line.

“Several kids have been impressive. I hate to point out one or two but some have played like I expected and some have been a pleasant surprise. We had several kids that played better than we expected them to.”

Empire will have the opportunity to put the iron in the fire next Friday night when it hosts Konawa and Walters for a scrimmage.

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