WARDSVILLE - While the ending wasn't so great - well, the lightning show was pretty impressive - the rest of Friday night's joint practice between the Blair Oaks and Helias football teams got rave reviews.
The head coaches of both teams said the event was extremely worthwhile, as it put a cap on a week of camp for both the Falcons and Crusaders.
"We got to have an opportunity to come out here and line up against somebody else and see how we'd respond to a different-colored jersey, so in that regard, it was a huge success," Blair Oaks head coach Terry Walker said.
Not that the combined workout came naturally to everyone.
"It was so new for our guys that I don't think they quite knew what to do," Helias head coach Tim Rulo said. "I had one guy say, "Coach, can I make a tackle or get off a block?' And I was like, "Yes, please go do those things.' There was such a huge learning curve in this experience."
And that learning will continue long after Friday's session.
"This is great - you're getting great film against somebody else, where you don't know what the play is, where it's best on best," Rulo said. "It's great practice. This is truly evaluation-based - we're trying to evaluate where guys are at."
The night had a different feel than your run-of-the-mill summer workout.
"It was good for the kids, a good environment," Walker said. "We had a great turnout by the parents and people from the community. So in that regard, it was a great night."
The only downside was the event got cut effectively in half due to the severe weather that rolled through roughly an hour into it. So while the various levels of the Blair Oaks offense got work against the Helias defense, the opposite wasn't true.
"Yes, we're sad our offense didn't get to get out there, but we got great work on the defensive side," Rulo said. "We got a ton of film that we can look at and evaluate what we need to do better."
Both teams are in similar situations, what with first-year coaches taking over the reins. So while every day of practice during the summer is always important, it's even bigger this year.
"We're trying to make the best use of our 25 contact days (allowed by the Missouri State High School Activities Association)," Walker said. "... We have 10 contact days in June and we'd like to have the bulk of our install done in June, both offensively and defensively. That way, in July, we can just focus on getting better and all the fundamentals that go with that."
Rulo said he's getting used to the players at the same time they're getting used to him.
"Every time out is a learning opportunity for both of us," he said. "I've got to learn how they get fired-up to go play a game, how they practice, how they watch film, heck, how they act in the weight room. And they need to see what my expectations are for those areas, as well. We're blending those together, so it's been a great experience.
"Almost every contact day we have is so huge, so vital, for us. ... We need to figure out which guys are going to be the guys for us. Where do we need to put guys to put the best ones out of the field and how do we get the next-best guys ready to go?"
The Falcons may have another joint practice with the Crusaders, and Blair Oaks has workouts scheduled at Rock Bridge later this month, at Hickman in early July and against Eldon and South Callaway at the end of July.
"I think it's great for the coaches, because we get to do a little bit more evaluating during these practices and see how kids respond in different situations," Walker said. "Even though we only had four and a half days of camp prior (to Friday), it gave us an opportunity to see where the kids were fitting in. We'll evaluate the film and make some moves based off of that."