With the first week of official practice in the books for the Tippecanoe football team, coach Matt Burgbacher is happy where things are with the Red Devils The work ethic the guys have shown is something that the Tipp coaching staff is pleased with as they prepare for their first scrimmage of the year on Saturday at Beavercreek with the host Beavers and Alter Knights.

“I really like what we have seen from these guys and I have seen it all summer, when it’s time to work it’s time to work,” Burgbacher said. “They give us everything they got. We actually got to a point this week where we had to back off a little bit, they were giving us so much effort and you can only do that for so long.”
“They now have two days off to physically and mentally recover and I like being at that position because they are giving us everything they got. It will pay off. This is a fun group to be around and the camaraderie we have right now is good.”

Burgbacher also mentioned that his team is focused on making sure the little things are being done and early in practice, praised his team for doing things the right way.

“The one thing we have focused on is being perfect on the boring things,” he said. “You have drills you do every day and you do those because they pop up in a game quite a bit and they can get monotonous and boring, but when you are perfect in doing those drills, that is what separates great teams from good teams.”

“We were perfecting those ‘boring drills’ and I think through the week, I have seen our guys get better at those drills. Are we perfect at them? No, it’s only week one. Are we getting better with those drills? Absolutely.”

Heading toward opening night August 23, Tipp travels to Beavercreek this Saturday for a 10 a.m. scrimmage with Alter. Burgbacher feels that will be a good test for his team as they prepare for their season opener against Bellbrook.

“The big thing is we want to play someone else and their offenses both do something different,” he said. “Bellbrook’s kids come off the ball just like Alter so it will be a good prep for our guys up front and we will find the physicality of that scrimmage will pay off.”

“Alter is a very good team and they will expose our weaknesses and we can go fix those.”

* Week three of the season sees the Red Devils travel to Greenville in their first road game of the season. The game will not be played at Harmon Field due to severe damage due to the tornado that hit Greenville back in May. One option to host the Greenville fall sports will be the Jennings complex which is also at the high school, but they may have to move the football games to a different stadium. More to come.