By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Yukon will have its only pre-season test this week as the Millers travel to Stillwater for a scrimmage Friday.
The Millers will play their earliest season opening game in history this season and it will be the first time in 40 years that YHS will not open the season with rival Mustang.
Yukon will host Edmond North in a zero week game on Aug. 24 at Miller Stadium. YHS hosts Mustang on Aug. 31.
The schedule for the scrimmage will be finalized the first part of the week. It will feature a first session with a second that may include a running clock game-type situation.
Yukon will wrap up its first week of drills today with their first day of pads in the evening workout.
The Millers spent the first four days in helmets and shorts and worked out Friday in “shells” and will have a limited contact workout
“We did a lot of re-install and some discipline stuff that will set a tone of who we are,” YHS head coach Jeremy Reed said. “We know who we are, but we wanted to set the tone for who we are early in our practices. We basically did a start over, we feel it is important each year to have a reset, start over from ground zero and reteach things, like we did in the spring.
“We have our media day Saturday and we will come back that evening and practice,” he said. “We will start meetings at 6 p.m. and finish up around 8:30 p.m. We may do some live stuff in practice, maybe some half-line, but it will be controlled.
“We set up spring practice to be very physical because we knew we didn’t want to be very physical in the fall. We will be limited on contact since we are getting ready for the first scrimmage and a very early week zero game.”
Even though the Millers have an early season start, the team has not really had to speed up their practices and will actually have less live action work.
“We looked way ahead and did a lot of things in the spring that we normally wouldn’t have done to prepare us for the fall,” he said. “I feel we are in a great place, our kids are in great shape, probably the best shape I have ever had a ream come in.
“We will operate our practice as normal,” he said. “Most teams will go multiple hours and we have done that in the past. But, we are staying our normal two and one-half hour practices.
“We will have 10 practices and one scrimmage leading up to that first game week. My big thing is we have to get certain things installed, but we want to be fresh going into the first game. We treated this first week line it was week two”
The Millers concentrated on details the first week. And, with number of returning starters and players back, Reed feels his team is “ahead of the game” right now.
“We are miles ahead of where we are from this time last August,” he said. “It is enjoyable to know that we are that much further ahead than last year.
“We know who we are and what we have, and we know what we need to take care of to get ready,” he added. “We just need to get out and do a great job in our practices.
“We answered a lot of questions in the spring,” he said. “We evaluated a lot in the spring. If we didn’t have spring ball it would make it tough, but we were able to evaluate a lot in the spring.”
The Millers will play six home games this season and will play their first four at Miller Stadium.
Following the Edmond North and Mustang games, the Millers will wrap up non-district play with Moore on Sept. 7. After an open date on Sept. 14, the Millers will open district play against Norman on Sept. 21.
YHS goes on the road for the first time on Sept. 28 to Edmond Santa Fe. YHS returns home to host Jenks on Oct. 5. The Millers travel to Westmoore on Oct. 12, then hosts Broken Arrow on Oct. 18, the team’s only Thursday night game.
The Millers finish the regular season with two games on the road. YHS travels to Enid on Oct. 25 and closes the regular season with a road game at Edmond Memorial.
