Unity ready to hit the field

TOLONO — For a 31-day month, July seems to go by pretty fast.

The month of August rolled in over the weekend, and school is right around the corner, meaning another exciting season of Unity athletics is quickly coming upon us.

The Unity football team will open practice for the 2009 season next Wednesday with its first doubles session of the year.

Head coach Scott Hamilton’s team has been busy in the weight room and participating in 7-on-7 tournaments throughout the summer. The Rockets have looked good, and Hamilton is optimistic for the season ahead.

It just has to get here.

“As I’ve gotten older and done this more, I try not to hurry through my summer too much, but I think there’s a lot of excitement for us this year,” Hamilton said Monday. “In our eyes I think we’ve underachieved a little bit the past few years, and I think our kids and our coaches are really eager to get back and try to get this team back to that quarterfinal-plus level of the playoffs.”

Unity is 13-8 over the past two seasons, their first two back in the Okaw Valley. Last season’s team was one-and-done in the postseason for the first time since 2001. Hamilton thinks this team has the ability to end the mini-slump and put up a big year.

The Rockets return starters on both sides of the ball, but Hamilton said they have more holes to fill on defense.

Seth Gooch and Colin Friedemann return to the Rockets’ backfield as corners, but their safeties and defensive line are inexperienced. The team auditioned new safeties during 7-on-7 games last month, allowing the Unity coaches to uncover some weak spots before Wednesday’s doubles.

“We found some key things we were able to work on,” Hamilton said. “One thing we worked on over at Washington was once the ball was thrown, leveraging the ball so that if we were in the game we would be able to make a play.”

The Rockets also used the available summer practice time to help assimilate new quarterback Dylan Sturgeon.

A running back in 2008, Sturgeon takes over for veteran Chris Ault.

“Dylan is what we refer to as athletically very smart,” Hamilton said. “He understands the game and what’s going on. He was good at running back, and it was very easy for us to move him back.”

One thing the Rockets won’t need to spend a lot of time on once doubles start is weight training and conditioning.

The football team has lifted three days a week all summer, and Hamilton said the group has made great strides in their conditioning — both physically and mentally.

“I always talk to our kids about three reasons to lift,” Hamilton said. “One is the mental edge, two is to help with injury prevention and three is it’s nice to know that you’ve been in there working next to the guy who you’re going to play with.”

The Rockets’ media day is Aug. 15, and the season opener is Aug. 28 at Central A&M.