Mountain Home Tigers prepare for 2013 fall season

The Mountain Home Tigers opened football practice Monday as they get ready for the 2013 football season that has them opening Aug. 30 at Jerome.

Aaron Rodney is going into his second season as head coach of the Tigers and hopes this is the season the Tigers can turn things around. Rodney's 2012 Tigers went 0-9, and coupled with the 2011 Tigers' 0-9 season, and the 2010 Tigers dropping their final four games.

That's a 22-game streak of losses this year's varsity squad hopes to end soon.

Coach Rodney started his off-season work with the Tigers shortly after last season ended. Rodney has been pleased with the off-season work.

"I think we've done some things differently and we've got after it in the weight room a little bit, but the biggest thing we've been able to do is our recruiting efforts have been pretty good," the coach said. "Last year, we didn't have a freshman team. We have 30 freshmen coming out this year, so we're very pleased with that.

"For year two, I think we're a little ahead of where we wanted to be," the coach added. "One of the differences that we have this year is we have a lot more depth, so we have competition at different positions, and it should make us better. We have a lot of returning starters, a lot of kids that tasted their first varsity experience last year, and they're veterans now, and we expect a lot out of them, so we feel pretty good with where we're at."

This past summer the Tigers went to a football camp in Twin Falls. Coach Rodney thought they had a good experience there.

"We were very pleased," the coach said. "The first day or two was a little rough, but once we got into it, we did very good, very well. Our final two scrimmages, against Minico and Bishop Kelly, we did very well. Those are two very good programs -- playoff programs.

"One of the reasons I wanted to go to Twin Falls was to see our measuring stick as to where we were at with other 4A teams in Idaho, and I thought we measured up real well," he added. "Now hopefully that continues and carries over and we do a good job to make sure we don't regress, and that it comes back to carry forward and we need to progress and get better every day."

Rodney is pleased with the turnout for Tiger football this year.

"Last year, we were at 67 kids in four grades," he said. "This year, my goal was 80. We're very close to that right now -- we're at about the mid 70s. We've got a few more kids we've talked to that have come out, so we're about there.

"Our coaches have done a good job of recruiting kids," the coach added. "I think anymore these days, you've got to recruit kids, because a lot of kids don't want to come out and do anything, so you've got to recruit and encourage them, and that's been half the battle, and I think we've done a good job of that."