A sea of maroon and gold flooded Tom Gannarelli Field, and St. Cloud High School head football coach Michael Short emerged from the center of the chaos.
“Bulldogs on three, let’s go! One, two, three, BULLDOGS!”
While most were already sleeping, the St. Cloud High School football team were pumped and hitting the field for their first practice of the season at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Short said “Midnight Madness” is something he’s brought to every school throughout his coaching career.
“It’s just great team bonding and a wonderful atmosphere for the boys just to get together,” Short said. “They stay all night and you know, be one of the first teams in the state of Florida -- if not the first team -- to practice when fall practices open.”
The Bulldogs came back later that morning to go over the finer details, such as technique, stretching, and formations.
Despite spending a late night at practice and getting just a few hours of sleep, assistant head coach Zach Beaverson said there was still high energy on the field.
“I think Coach Short’s done a great job kind of rallying them up,” Beaverson said. “Last night, I think, especially the flip side of turning around this morning and kind of doing a walk through it, I think it was a really positive start to the year.”
Beaverson said they’ve adopted Thursday nights as weekly pregame walkthroughs to help the players adjust to playing under the lights.
Short believes developing St. Cloud’s young team will be the key to success this fall.
“Some of these kids are going to be four-year starters for us, you know, so we’re going to go into year two with those guys who played significant reps,” Short said. “Our main focus is just to build on that youth.”
On Monday, volleyball, swimming, golf and cross country practices also began, ahead of seasons that will begin in about two weeks, ahead of Labor Day.
