Bozeman opens fall camp with morning workout Monday

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -Thousands of high school football players and coaches marked the day Monday, out on the field for the first official day of fall camp! Jason Griffin and his Bozeman Bucks among them. Coach Griffin going into his 5th season at the helm up there, and hoping to build on the momentum of a pretty good season. Bozeman 6-5 last season, with a fourth consecutive playoff appearance. The Bucks with more than 40 players out, with some of these guys as young as 6th and 7th graders. That’s allowed since the middle and high schools there are attached. Most of the experience comes from upper classman, Q-B Peyton Gay now a junior, will start for a third straight year. His line has experience and height. All reasons for optimism. All that fueling the enthusiasm for coaches and players alike who’ve been looking ahead to August First for some time!

“It’s always a special day.” coach Griffin told me during a water break. “You know all the things we do in the summer, we really work hard. The summers are harder than they used to be. But there’s still nothing like that first day of putting the helmets on and knowing that it’s football season. Our guys feel the same way, they’re excited, there is great energy and great enthusiasm this morning so I’m just like them, I feel like a little kid today. And so they’re excited and I’m just excited as they are. Static moving your feet.”

”It was a little hard, sleeping.” senior quarterback Peyton Gay told me. “I was so ready for football season, ready to be out throwing. Still got a week before that. It sucks but I’ve got to do ball handling and help the running backs and the oh-line out. Yeah but I could barely sleep last night.”

”I think we’re pretty ready.” says senior offensive lineman DJ Moore. “Luckily we have a few more weeks. The beginning of the season is always that slow ramp up into full speed. And I’m hoping that we will start up pretty high on the ramp instead of starting down low. A lot of summer conditioning, maintaining weight while doing more conditioning that I’ve ever done in my life. So we’ve got a lot of our guys that have gotten stronger. The maxes have gone up. you know we’ve got more people pushing over 300 so we’re gonna love it.”

Certainly with four straight playoff appearances the bar’s been raised at Bozeman, and the coach says he expects his guys to accept that play accordingly.

“Absolutely, expectations, you know, they’re a double edged sword.” Griffin says “Again playoffs four straight years, we’ve had some success here that they probably were not quite as accustomed to in previous years. Having that expectation is sort of where we’re at now. We expect this team to compete for the postseason. We expect this team to not only compete to be in the postseason, but maybe have the chance to do some things in the postseason. So there are expectations here. And again that’s a double edged sword. These guys have to rise to that challenge. I expect these guys to do the work and give themselves an opportunity. And that’s what you hope for as a coach, that you were going to give your kids an opportunity. And they’re going to embrace that and do the things they need to do to make it happen. "

The Bucks host Arnold in a preseason classic on the 19th and open the regular season at home against Geneva on the 26th.

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