Both Head Coaches Wally Moon (Santa Gertrudis Academy High School) and Robert Wilcox (H.M. King) ran anything but a lackadaisical Day One practice as their high school varsity football teams joined thousands of others in the state in kicking off their summer workouts on Monday.

Like a telescope, Moon nitpicked his players’ mechanics as the Lions went through back-peddling exercises they will need when covering wide receivers.

Following the Brahmas’ first afternoon workout, Wilcox quickly reminded his boys that practice was to be taken seriously even if it was Day One.

You could call both coaches’ attention to detail and demand for maturity from their players a little too much to ask on Day One, but remember something. Neither of these teams reached the postseason last year.

Yeah, I know the truth hurts - just as I hate to admit I’ve packed on a few pounds these past couple of months - but final scoreboards and the outcomes of seasons-past do not lie. In addition, both squads have failed to put together a winning record in the past three seasons. Academy, in fact, hasn‘t won a varsity game on the field in school history.

Therefore, there is no time for fooling around in practice or having hurt feelings when any coach provides constructive criticism even if it is in a brusque - but not out line - manner.

Remember that the sport of football, at any level, suffers neither fools nor wimps. Football is one of life’s greatest examples of survival of the fittest. We love football, for one, because it is one of the last connections our modern world has to ancient war.

Football is a game that was almost banned by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (back in the early 1900’s) when 18 people - if I’m correct - died playing the game in one year. Back then the forward pass did not exist as players simply rammed into one another headfirst, while trying to advance the ball, and many plays simulated multi-vehicle collisions.

As a society, we celebrate the bonecrushing hits and tackles and mentally record the ones we cherish for whatever reason. Question is, are you going to be delivering the jarring hits this season, or will you be the guy taking them? That’s why you guys practice.

(Rey Sifuentes Jr. can be reached at rataman2@yahoo.com)