Beginning the countdown<\/a> toward the first games of the season Aug. 27, Monday represents everything a new season brings: hope, optimism and, of course, wind sprints.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI think the first thing on the first day is establishing championship habits,\u201d said Rauls, who enters his fourth year leading the Jags. \u201cYou don\u2019t win championships on day one, but you set what the standard is going to be. And when you set that standard and develop the habits of a champion, then you\u2019re stepping in the right direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though teams can\u2019t put on pads until Thursday, Rauls noted there\u2019s plenty to accomplish with no contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s details,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about making sure you\u2019re perfect in your alignment, that you know what your assignment is, and then as coaches, we\u2019re coaching the steps, the hand placements and eyes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The LBJ offense conducts drills Monday, Aug. 3 on the first day of the 2026 Texas high school football season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colby Gordon\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Bowie Bulldogs: The more time, the better<\/p>\n
Bowie is one of several Austin-area big-class schools that chooses to have the extra week in August. (Those who held spring practice start Aug. 10.) Bulldogs coach Jeff Ables said there are several reasons he prefers more time in the preseason, such as player paperwork and not interfering with spring sports, but the main one is health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always hated to lose somebody in spring training,\u201d said Ables, who’s in his 43rd year of coaching and his 25th leading Bowie, making him the dean of Austin-area coaches.\u00a0\u201cBack when we had it, we\u2019d have somebody break their leg or tear up their shoulder, and you hate to see that where a kid may not even get to begin his senior year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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For the players, there\u2019s also a different feel to the season\u2019s official start. Especially seniors, who could have a markedly different role than nine months ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an expectation,\u201d LBJ senior defensive back Josiah Covington said. \u201cCoaches expect me to be a leader and be a guy on this team this year, so I have to carry myself and be a leader and just work hard. \u2026 I like helping out the (younger) defensive backs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Start of practices signals the start of the season<\/p>\n
Both Rauls and Ables said just being around their players again is one of the best parts of preseason camp, but there\u2019s also the chance to see all the preparation that began in January start to materialize.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s like a boxer getting in the ring,\u201d said Rauls, whose team had to borrow helmets from Anderson High School for Monday’s practice since theirs weren\u2019t scheduled to arrive until Tuesday. \u201cAll of the off-road running, all of the jump roping, all of the heavy bags and all of the speed bags, now you\u2019re in the ring and have a chance to put it all together. That\u2019s what I look forward to when we get out here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LBJ players run through drills Monday, Aug. 3, 2026 on the first day of the high school football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,20890,586,2291,1227,106740],"class_list":["post-397252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bowie-bulldogs","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-schools","tag-lbj-jaguars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}