By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

In the building of a winning season, a little rain must fall, right?

But, must it always come with lightning? And must it happen on the first few days of practice?

With the high school Kickoff Classic football games still two weeks away, Mother Nature tried to be teams’ first 2011 opponent as a soupy, wet weather pattern tried to sack the first week of practice. Teams began conditioning drills (no pads) on Monday.

With dual sessions all week, coaches thought morning practice would be spared from afternoon thunderstorms. But 10:30 a.m. wasn’t early enough – Celebration Coach Ben Aarestad said the aptly-named Storm got chased off the practice field Tuesday morning.

At St. Cloud, Coach Mike Short moved the afternoon session inside the gym, and expected to do the same on Wednesday.

Osceola made it through its practices unscathed Tuesday. Harmony, a team that may start five sophomores on each side of the ball and therefore needs all the practice it can get, was uninterrupted, as well.

“We’ve gotten all our practice in,” HHS Coach Jerrad Butler said Tuesday afternoon. “Everything’s been good thus far.”

Teams may don pads and take part in contact drills beginning today.

Celebration will play Monarch, Colo., at the Wide World of Sports Aug. 25 for its Kickoff Classic.

Other county teams will play their Kickoff Classics Aug. 26.