Mountain Home preps for football season debut

The Mountain Home Tigers continue preparing for their Aug. 30 football opener at Jerome.

Last Saturday was Media Day for the Tigers, as head football coach Aaron Rodney and his team met with the media.

Coach Rodney thought they had a good first week of practice.

"It went pretty good. Our numbers have been good. They've stayed up. The kids, we've been pushing them hard this week. Friday (was) the culmination of all things. The kids are tired, but they pushed through.

"Right now we're going to start slowing it down and get their legs under them and starting Monday go into our preparations for Jerome," Rodney said.

"I've been pleased with the effort, and pleased with the competitions that are going on," the coach added. "I think these kids are hungry. We have a lot of kids that are hungry to get some victories, and for the most part, I think it's gone pretty well."

Back for his senior year is Tiger running back Ryan Eckstrom, who led the team in rushing and tackles last year. Eckstrom is excited about this year's squad.

"We're looking really good," he said. "High intensity practices, everyone's doing their job and just getting it done and learning our positions and what we've got to do. We're going to get it done this season."

Jiame Martinez is also back for his senior season. The Tiger receiver, defensive end and kicker and punter is also excited about this season.

"The first week of practice has been pretty good. We're going to have a big different result this season ­-- trust me -- I promise you that. I think we have a lot more power. The O-line's looking a lot better, and our backfield's going to kill it."

Christien Riedel also echoed those comments. The junior left tackle and defensive end is back for his second season with the Tigers and predicts a good year.

"It's going to be a good year," Riedel said. "We're getting better. It was a fun week of practice. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot better year than it was last year. We've added a lot new pieces. Our line's a lot better ­-- it's just going to be a good year this year."

Tanner Sessions made it unanimous. The Tiger junior middle linebacker and fullback has seen a lot of drive from this year's team.

"We had early practices, starting off the week at six o'clock (in the morning), and we kind of thought some kids might blow it off -- a six o'clock practice is pretty early -- but we've had a ton of kids out there and we've been pushing it ever since and we've been going hard.

"We're looking really strong. The key things this year are leadership and accountability. Kids are actually being accountable for their mistakes and there's really good leadership this year, with kids pushing each other. And we have depth, which we've really been needing the past couple of years. So, just because you're on the team you don't get a spot, you have to work for it, and that's going to push us and make us better."

Coach Rodney indicated that this Friday night, they will divide the junior varsity and varsity up and scrimmage in the Black-White Game at Tiger Field.

"We've got officials coming out, and we're going to go on the game field here. I elected to do that this year instead of a jamboree, because we don't have to travel, we can do it here, and get the kids out of here early.

"Last year, we sat around for a couple hours and ended up stretching a couple of times, so I wasn't a big fan of that and the jamboree.

"I'm going to see how this goes. We have enough teams, we can split the guys up into two equal teams and play a game, and try to get the community out, and it will be under the lights, and hopefully it will be a good time.

"It'll be our final scrimmage and probably our last evaluation period where we start naming starters and things like that."

Friday night's Black-White scrimmage will start at 7 p.m. that evening at Tiger Field.

The Tigers will open their season Aug. 30 at Jerome.