Once again, a preseason scrimmage has been moved away from Harve Collins Field.

Norman High’s meeting with Putnam City North tonight will now take place at Oklahoma City’s Puntam City Stadium instead of on the Tigers’ home field.

Norman North had its scrimmage with Edmond North moved last week because the new field turf at The Harve wasn’t ready.

New week, same problem.

There are still rubber pellets and sand to put down to make the surface feel more like real grass, and the goal posts have yet to be put up. There’s also some trimming around the field’s edges to be done.

“They put the team logos on,” Norman Public Schools athletics coordinator Frank Thompson said. “There’s just still some work to do.”

Tiger players were understandably disappointed, coach Greg Nation said. After North’s scrimmage was moved last week, NHS players were looking forward to being the first team to hit the new turf.

They still will Sept. 18 when they host Moore, one day before the Timberwolves host Westmoore.

“They’re very, very disappointed,” Nation said. “I like that, though, because that means they wanted to play in front of our home crowd and at our home stadium. They were excited. But they’re still excited to hit the field tonight and play an opponent anywhere.”



Middle school preview

Alcott will play host to this year’s middle school preview today starting at 4:30 p.m.

Players from all four city middle schools, Alcott, Whittier, Irving and Longfellow, will hit the field for a scrimmage.



Long day ahead

North will be in Mustang today for the Pepsi Pigskin Preview, which starts in the afternoon and continues on into the late evening.

The T-Wolves will get to the field around 4 p.m. and play in a rapid-fire scrimmage situation against several schools.

“We’ll be done around 5, then eat at 6:45,” coach Lance Manning said.

After that, the T-Wolves will watch other squads participate in a simulated half of football before getting ready for their own action at 9 p.m. against Midwest City.

“It’s good for conditioning and gets our younger guys a lot of reps during the rapid-fire part,” Manning said. “The older guys, we don’t have them out long during the early part.”

Ladner back

NHS gets a boost today when middle linebacker Zach Ladner hits the field for the first time since the spring.

Ladner suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot, which affects the bone on the outside part of the foot, earlier this summer.

“We’re happy to have him back and we’re excited to get him back at 100 percent,” Nation said. “He fills a big leadership role for us on defense.”



Getting fit

Manning said this week has been a good one on the practice field, especially for conditioning.

The weather is finally feeling more like August in Oklahoma, and he said his team needed the heat to get a little tougher.

“We needed to work in the heat,” Manning said. “We got a lot of good conditioning in this week and we’re getting in shape.”

Fatigue was a big talking point for Manning after last week’s scrimmage at Edmond North. He told his players they needed to be in better shape if they wanted to play well later into games.

“We put an extra emphasis on conditioning this week,” Manning said. “Right now we’re looking good.”



Presidential impression

While former President Bill Clinton spoke at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, Nation told of how he’s met the former Arkansas governor more than a few times.

One time, in particular, left a lasting impression.

Going to play golf with an in-law who worked at the state capitol, Nation, who’s from Arkansas, had a fun “run-in” with Clinton.

“I was running through this tunnel at the state capitol, and it came out right in front of his office,” Nation remembered. “I was running back to get my golf clubs that I’d forgotten, and I came out and ran right into him.”

Nation then went into a spot-on Clinton impression that would have put Saturday Night Live’s Phil Hartman or Darrell Hammond to shame.

Jeff Johncox

366-3535

jjohncox@normantranscript.com