After finishing its first practice of the season Monday morning with a set of sprints, the Wright City football team huddled around its head coach while trying to collect its collective breath.

“I hate conditioning, guys, but we have to do it,” Jeff Sargent told his players.

With no contact allowed the first three days of practice, Sargent used the time to work on basic schemes and conditioning.

The group of Wildcats seemed small, because it was small.

“It’s always that way on the first day,” the second-year head coach said. “There’s nothing we can do to get kids out here until school starts. The biggest issue is starting practice Aug. 1. No matter how many times I contact the kids, they’re going to come out when school starts, which means they’re normally not eligible the first game.”

Sargent led a senior-laden Wildcats team to an 8-4 record last fall, but admits it wasn’t always easy.

Getting a new message across to a group of fourth-year players can be a struggle for any coach on any level, and Sargent was no different.

This year, however, appears to be different.

“One of my big things now is grades,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure they are student-athletes, and the student comes first. The problem is we haven’t put that first. But this year we’re going to make that a priority to put that first. We’re also going to implement rules that make sure kids show up to class and show up to practice.”

Sargent said he expects a small group of players to miss the Aug. 19 opener at Winfield due to missed practices or summer disciplinary problems.

He hopes the short-term speed bump leads to a better culture around the football program going forward.

“We’ve got to show up and we’ve got to get ready,” he said. “We’ve got a good group where we can implement this now. Last year was a little more difficult because they were seniors and they were set in their ways, and we had a lot of them. It was kind of too hard to change the culture and the environment, and that’s what we’re doing now. We’re changing the culture that students come first and athletics is a privilege.”

Eventually, Sargent expects around 50 players in the program this season.

Thursday he planned on transitioning to more football work after the rules began to lighten.

“The first three days you can’t do contact stuff, so we do a lot of stuff that involves getting people in the right positions and showing them our base formations, as well as conditioning,” he said. “And obviously the kids that got in trouble over the summer are going to get in better shape.”