Senators start practice today

When Carson High football coach Blair Roman puts his team through its first official workout this afternoon, thoughts of last year’s horrific finish will be behind him.

Carson started the season 4-1 against High Desert teams, but went 0-4 against Sierra League foes to finish with a 4-5 record and end its streak of three straight league championships.

“We’ve talked about it enough,” Roman said recently. “Last year was last year. The kids on the team last year tried their hardest. We lost a couple of close games that we could have won. We’ve never been a team that dwelled on adversity.”

Carson lost three of its four league games by a total of 12 points. The fourth Sierra loss was a 42-0 manhandling at the hands of Galena.

Roman will begin working toward getting his team ready for the scrimmage at home against Spanish Springs (10 a.m. on Aug. 24) and the season-opener at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 at Hug.

“The biggest thing about the way high school football works now (in terms of what you can do during the summer) is it replaces the old double days,” Roman said. “Nine days is not a lot of time to get ready (for the scrimmage), but we’ve done a lot of work in the off-season so I feel like when we report we’ll be in good shape.

“When we start hitting on Aug. 19, obviously that will be a big thing. We’ll be fine-tuning a lot of things on both sides of the ball.”

One thing Roman has talked a lot about this season is his team’s physical strength. He chalks that up to more dedication in the weightroom since last fall.

“The senior class is the strongest I’ve had in the weight room,” Roman said. “The junior and the two or three pups (sophomores) on the varsity are right where they need to be. I do feel the level of commitment is pretty evident, and not just with the linemen.

“It’s a matter of the kids buying in. We’re not doing anything different in terms of what we’re stressing and how we go about it. There is definitely a good attitude and organization with this group.”

The Senators will play this year without junior fullback Colby Brown, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on the final play of the South Tahoe camp earlier this summer. Brown gained nearly 800 yards last year. Nevin Elliott has been running first-team fullback in Brown’s absence.

Carson linebacker-running back Austin Shaffer is suffering from a shoulder injury which could keep him out of the opener. Roman said an MRI was negative.

NOTES: Aug. 24 will be a busy day for Carson football players. After the scrimmage against Spanish Springs, there is the annual party at the Nugget parking lot where this year’s Hall of Fame Class will be inducted … A reminder to all fans, all varsity games this year will start at 7 p.m. freshman will play at 3:45 p.m. on Thursdays and JV games will start at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays.