Varsity Kansas - The Blog

by joanna

One of the keys to a successful blog, I think, is building a relationship with readers. I want to provide information to you, but I also want to get your input. So when I asked what you wanted to know, and several of you said you wanted to know more about the smaller schools in the area, I made the calls.

I’m hoping to hear back from South Haven next week, but today I talked to Oxford coach Shawn Burkes, whose team is moving to 8-man after playing 11-man.

Burkes said Oxford will have its team camp at the end of the month. The team didn’t go to a contact camp, but several players went to individual camps. His team lifts four times a week and has conditioning before lifting. The conditioning usually consists of plyometrics, running stadium stairs, running hills.

As for moving to 8-man: “We ended up with like 20 (players) at the end of last year and … looking down at the lower grades is what has us concerned (because the number of boys in those lower grades continues to fall).”

Burkes hasn’t coached 8-man before, but he’s watched tape and has talked to other coaches about how to make changes.

“We’ve had a decent turnout so far for the weight room, and we’re expecting to be competitive (this year). I’ve seen some of (Oxford’s future opponents) play, and you get an idea from basketball and from track. And now we’re back to playing most of our league teams.”

Oxford went to the playoffs in 2006, losing to Pittsburg Colgan in the second round of the playoffs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 p.m. and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.