Summertime: when the final bell of the semester rings and high school students run for the pool, relieved of finals and early mornings for a few, brief, cherished months. But for football players, it’s a time when the real work begins.
Entering his third season as head coach at Highlands Ranch High School, Jason Shumaker knows the work done — even as early as right after last season ended — has a direct impact on what happens come gametime in the fall.
The clock is ticking. The last day of school was May 25 and Shumaker is thinking already about the last time the team hit the weight room.
“We haven’t lifted since last Friday, so you kind of get a 10-day break to focus on finals and finish up what you need to do academically,” Shumaker said. “Then we’ll have a four-day Memorial Day weekend, but then we’ll go hard for three weeks in June.”
The players get the last week of June and first week of July off: their de facto summer break. But that’s about it. For the rest of July, it’s practice, meetings, watching film, and lots of lifting, which started last November.
After a 2-8 record last year, where the Falcons went 0-5 in league play, the team is eager to put the work in early, particularly incoming seniors gearing up for their final season. It doesn’t take a lot to get them fired up to practice, Shumaker said.
“Some guys are super excited because now you just get to focus on football,” he said. “You’ve got guys that are coming back from playing other sports who are excited to get back with their teammates. We try to mix in as much fun as we can.”
Some of the fun includes splitting the players into eight teams to compete in tug-of-wars, races, and other games.
And, the Falcons are hosting a free youth football camp on June 3 for third-to-eighth-graders, where kids can learn fundamentals and skills from players and coaches at Highlands Ranch.
“It’s a big jump for young players,” Shumaker said. “Players will have a big jump going from eighth-grade year to freshman year because it’s a totally different requirement and time commitment to be a high school football player. We put in a lot more time and a lot more effort, but we also know everyone we’re playing is doing the same thing, too.”
Another camp is held for young coaches who want to gather knowledge and experience from veteran coaches on June 12. It’s all in an effort to give back to the community and provide visibility and experience to those who want to break into coaching, which Shumaker said, adding that finding breaks in the profession can be tough.
Meanwhile, it’s still early in Shumaker’s tenure, and he’s working to build that winning culture and everything that comes with it.
“We’re trying to work on building that mentality of understanding that. That is what it takes and you do have to put in the time,” Shumaker said.
During the summer workouts, players get after it early, finishing practice before 10 a.m. to avoid the worst of the heat and allow them to still have social lives, he said. But it’s a time of work and preparation.
As for the Falcons’ 2-8 record last year, a lot of those losses were super close, with the other team coming out only a point ahead or so at the final whistle. Shumaker believes the trajectory of his program is strong, and knows with the right preparation, losses like those last year could easily turn into wins in the season ahead.
“We’re working on building that mentality of expecting to win,” he said. “If you want to be successful and want to give yourself an opportunity to be successful, then you gotta put in the work. Otherwise you’re just fooling yourself.”
When the Falcons’ first game of 2023 kicks off on Sept. 9, the hard work of the team this summer will be center stage.
