Lutz looks to turn Tigers around

HUNTINGTON -- It did not take long to figure out Ironton High School football coach Bob Lutz was full into regular season mode despite Thursday being the first day of practice in Ohio.

And, maybe with good reason.

Lutz is looking to turn around the Fighting Tigers after going 5-5 in 2007 -- only his third non-winning season in 35 total years as Ironton's head coach.

He doesn't plan on 2008 being a fourth, and he knows exactly what needs to change.

"The main thing is attitude. If the attitude is better, we'll be better," Lutz said. "If the attitude is not better, we won't be any better than we were last year, and we were awful. We won five games because there were five teams a lot worse than we were."

Lutz said Thursday was much easier than the same time last year when he was reintroducing himself to a young group of players after taking the 2006 season off.

Now, the players know what to expect from Lutz and he knows what to expect from them.

"After taking a year off and having these guys get a year under their belt, it's a lot smoother and easier the first day," Lutz said.

South Point coach Doug Shilot is in much of the same boat. The first day in 2007 was more about introductions and explaining what the team would do.

However, Shilot said instead of talking about what the team will do, Thursday was spent practicing what the team will do.

"The honeymoon is over," Shilot said. "The kids know what we are going to do and know our base plays. We are much farther along than what we were last year."

Shilot is excited about returning 12 seniors to the mix in 2008, and is looking to be in position for its ultimate goal -- an Ohio Valley Conference championship.

Just down U.S. 52 a few miles, the goal was the same for Coal Grove coach Dave Lucas, who said his team had a successful start to the season.

"The kids worked really hard and got in two good practices," Lucas said. "When you first start, you really want to see if your kids are really paying attention and I felt our kids had a great day doing what we asked them to do."

Lucas said part of the key to the first-day success was the experience his team is bringing to the field for workouts.

"We've finally cycled through and got some kids that has been in the program for two or three years," Lucas said. "These kids know exactly what we are doing. It makes them a lot easier to coach them."

While the practice schedule started Thursday for Ohio, game action is not far away. Ohio teams will begin scrimmages Aug. 8 and the annual OVC Grid-O-Rama is Aug. 15 at Coal Grove.

The Ohio regular season opens Aug. 22, one week earlier than West Virginia and Kentucky.