McKinney North Bulldogs Skipping Spring Football

The program will start practice one week earlier in August

For the first time in recent memory, there will be no spring football practices at McKinney North High School.

“In Texas, not having spring ball, it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around,” said McKinney ISD Athletic Director Shawn Pratt.

However, Pratt said when weighing several determining factors the decision just “made sense.”

The Bulldogs program is adding two new coaches, both of whom won’t be available to work with the team until fall.

Another factor involves the players themselves and, specifically, their commitments to other sports in the spring.

Pratt said more than a dozen players are also involved in spring track and have qualified for the state meet in Austin.

He said they decided to spare them football practices, where they may “tweak a hamstring” or suffer another injury and disqualify themselves for the meet.

“Instead of going now and getting in your 18 workouts in 30 days, we’re going to opt to move to August and get an extra week of practice,” Pratt said, a choice that is acceptable by UIL rules.

“There are some schools around here that have done this, and coaches talk, ‘How’d you like it?’ And some of them liked it.”

The program also believes it may be able to spark a competitive edge by focusing less on drills and more on time in the weight room and conditioning this spring.

“That’s what we want to try to do, is make it into a positive,” said Pratt.
 

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