Now it’s all business for the Cordova High School football program.

After players had the option of working out at the school’s weight room and take part in voluntary conditioning drills during the Sac-Joaquin Section’s dead period the last three weeks, the Lancers’ varsity and frosh/soph football teams gathered Monday to kick-off conditioning. On Wednesday, both teams put on the shoulder pads for the first time this season.

“The kids looked good,” said Cordova varsity head coach Darren Nill of Monday and Tuesday’s conditioning drills. “The strength and conditioning coach Vince Mini (owner of Mini’s House of Pain in El Dorado Hills, who him and his staff have worked with the players in the weight room over the summer) came up to me and said ‘I think you guys are going to have a great practice.’ We went out to practice, and sure enough, the kids were fired up for practice. They were excited to be there.”

The Lancer varsity grid squad has also been working on special teams; kickoffs, kick-off returns, punt, punt returns and point after touchdowns (PAT)/field goal and PAT/FG block.

“We have been doing 15 minutes of special teams, 10 minutes all summer,” Nill said. “(Tuesday) was a concentrated, special teams practice; we spent a good hour on just special teams.”

According to Nill, there are now 104 players combined on both squads. There were 10 players who showed up on Monday; four on varsity and six on the frosh/soph squad.

Nill said that the four players for his squad have not worked out with the team over the summer, as they were busy playing on the Cordova High School boys basketball summer team. The coach noted that before those players are handed their football gear, they would need to run 45 miles. That is the same number of miles that the other varsity players ran throughout summer workouts.

“We have team rules, and they have to do a lot of running,” Nill said. “That’s not so much for them … that’s for the team. The team needs to see that these guys really want to play. Team rules come before wins.

“They missed a lot of hard work during the summer. They are in the process of doing that running. All four of them are good athletes.”

Both the Cordova varsity and frosh/soph football teams will play their first scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 20th, when they host Capital Christian. Admission to watch the controlled contests at Lancer Stadium is free.

A breakdown on this year’s varsity football team will be in next week’s issue.