The first official day of fall sports practices provided an immediate challenge for Doug Smith during his inaugural season as Wright City’s new athletic director.

With heat indexes reaching into the 100s, the Wildcats were forced to move their practices inside or change times.

“It definitely presents some challenges for coaches to adapt their plans,” said Smith. “The kids and coaches have been great about working around the heat. There’s guidelines set in place (by MSHSAA), and we’re going to follow. That’s a decision no one had a problem with.”

Smith says he is thrilled to begin his first season at Wright City, having taken over athletic director duties during July. He moved from Holt to take over the position which was consolidated with the high school assistant principal role.

“I can’t wait,” he asserted. “Working with this group of coaches has made the transition a smooth one.”

The football team spent its first day of practice having team meetings. Coach James Weir says 57 reported on day one but expects a few more athletes to filter in by the end of the week.

“We’ll have about 65 when it’s all said and done,” said Weir.

Following a milestone season that led to a playoff berth, the Wildcats are anxious to get the 2011 season under way.

“Everybody is ready to go,” said Weir. “Everbody’s geared up to try to have another good year.”

The Wildcats are unable to practice on their field and will play all of their home games at Warrenton, as renovations to Wright City’s athletic complex are not yet complete. Smith says construction is currently under way on the new all-weather track. While grass is beginning to grow on the football field, Smith says the school doesn’t want to take any chances.

“We don’t want to mess the field up by playing on it too soon,” he assured.

Smith was able to work with the Wright City Parks and Recreation Department to accommodate the football team’s practice plans for the remainder of the week. The Wildcats will practice under the lights at Roegge Park from 8 to 11 p.m.

“We don’t have the opportunity to go late on our field, so Wright City Parks has been great working with us on that,” said Smith.

First-year volleyball coach Ian Kester reports that he had around 20 girls out for the first practice.

“That’s about what I expected,” said Kester.

He spent much of the summer getting acquainted with the girls, so the transition time was minimal.

“Most of the girls have been going to open gyms, so it didn’t seem like that much of a difference (starting first official day of practice). We got a nice routine set up during the summer.”

Softball coach Fred Ross says he had 25 players report to the first day of practice. He is expecting make cuts near the end of the week.

Smith says the cross country team will not begin practices until school starts, as the first meet is nearly a month away.