It is a different feel this off season for Illinois High School football teams.
The season starts a week early…the weekend of August 21st, to allow for more teams to make it into the playoffs. That means practice for most teams will start next Monday.
Jacksonville High School football coach Mark Grounds has tried to limit the impact of the norm for the summer months.
But, Grounds says he has tweaked his schedule, and set the first practice for JHS a week from today.
Other schools will begin practice next Monday.
Grounds says the downside for students, and coaches, is that the new schedule shortens summer.
He says he counter-balanced with fewer contact days this summer.
Jacksonville starts the season on the road at Jerseyville on the 21st, before opening at home against Fort Zumwalt of St Louis the following Friday.