Inlet Grove High School football squad members say they have been practicing all summer, trying to kick the season off right in their first game this Friday, Aug. 21.

“We want to see some fans in the stands,” said Terence Graham, a junior in the Multimedia Academy. “Yeah, we need the fans, we can’t win without the fans,” added Albert Golden, a senior transfer student from Palm Beach Gardens High School.

Head Coach and Athletic Director Terry Braden said the summer was very challenging for the Hurricanes’ football program. “We took part in a lot of activities involving team building projects,” he said. “It began with working out Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m to 7 p.m. We lifted weights for an hour, did fundamental work for an hour and we ran for a hour.

“In mid-June,” he added, “we took 10 of our players up to Fayetteville University and North Carolina State to their camps and to meet their head coaches. In July we attended the FAMU Satellite camp in Miami.

“After these trips we focused on our skill positions here at the school,” hosting scrimmages with teams from other schools around the county, said Coach Braden, an Inlet Grove alumnus and the youngest athletic director in the state. “We also went to the beach in July on Tuesdays and Thursdays for summer conditioning.”

“We went to the beach, a lot,” said Collin Kellar, as team members took a lunch break from practice the week before school began. The Pre-Engineering sophomore, wearing the T-shirt of his future University of Miami, and his teammates described running in the soft sand from the Riviera Beach Municipal Beach to the harbor inlet and back.

“We were dead by the time we got back,” said Albert, a senior in the Culinary Academy planning to attend Texas Tech University. “That’s gonna help us when we’re in the trenches.”

“We also did some drills on the bag, stuff like that,” said Terence, who plans to attend the University of Central Florida. “Right now we’re practicing fundamentals and learning the plays.”

During the summer the students also painted the bleachers and cleaned up the field. “It was so much hard work, and we just want to showcase it next week,” Albert said. “We’ve been working hard all summer. It’ll be worth it though. Hard work pays off.”