By Bruce Karnick

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It’s a rarity that a photographer can get up close and personal with the various sports teams from the high school, but Raiders Head Coach Dana Strain gave The Journal permission to step into the field of play to capture some amazing angles of the new Raider Football team.

Before he took the field to coach practice, Coach Strain spent some time talking about the purpose of the scrimmage and how it helps evaluate where his team is at.

“The purpose of the BlueGold is, it is another practice for us, by and large it is another opportunity for us to evaluate our program. It’s one of the first times, based on the State High School league mandates, that we can tackle, go live and do some of the things that you have to do in our sport. You have to practice them if you want to do them well. So, the purpose is an evaluation tool to expose them to some of the things that we can’t necessarily do every day like live tackling, and this will be the first time that we go full contact live right into the ground, we did a little bit of drill work with it on Monday, but even that was controlled because it was our first time doing it. So that’s really what this is, it’s a chance for our kids to compete,” explained Coach Strain.

The scrimmage is set up with a lot of the same things kids will see in a game, including first down markers, transitioning in and out of the huddle to the sidelines, an uptempo pace of play to simulate a game time experience. It’s a great opportunity to shake the rust off and get minds right for the first game on Sept. 1 at home against Chanhassen at 7 p.m.

It is also a great opportunity for parents to watch their kids for the first time. Fans are allowed to watch this practice and see how the team has progressed in the first couple weeks. It gets the kids, coaches, fans and community excited that Raider football is almost here.

With it being a scrimmage, coaches can be anywhere they want on the field and stop the play at any time to coach if they need too, but they typically let the play go because they have film to fall back on. The scrimmage runs for an hour and is free to attend.