Right now, football teams are in the middle of a reset.
During the week before July 4, the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Association implements dead week, when teams can’t practice, meet or communicate, and giving a chance for coaches and players to reset, recoup and recalibrate.
However, the break wraps up Monday, July 6, and football teams are back on the field with about a month to go before the official practice season opens.
Coaches are hoping the week of rest leads to a solid month of work before football goes into one more break Friday, July 31.
“As we return from the dead week, we want our players to come back with a sense of urgency and excitement for what lies ahead,” Tahlequah head coach Brad Gilbert said. “Hopefully, these 10 days away have allowed them to recharge both physically and mentally.”
Through a hot three weeks, teams met for camps, looking to improve on schemes and fundamentals. Overall, Cherokee County teams — Hulbert, Keys, Tahlequah and Sequoyah — have made solid progress.
“We track several areas for our summer activities, from attendance to progress in workouts, and even team points from competitions,” Hulbert head coach Chad Botts said.
Steady progress throughout the past four weeks has seen coaches and teams start to get on the same page.
“We’ve seen our young men grow in their maturity, particularly in how they approach the process,” Gilbert said. “They have embraced the day-to-day grind with the right mindset, and that has led to better habits, which led to more intentional actions, whether in the weight room or on the football field. We’ve also seen significant growth in their overall understanding of our program, along with improved execution compared to where these same young men were at this time last year.”
While solid, all it served was as a good start for teams. When teams get back into the mix, coaches are going to expect to see a level of effort and improvement that was harvested during spring ball and summer meetings.
“I am pleased with the progress we have made from spring ball through our last session of seven-on-seven,” Keys head coach Justin Brown said. “Coming back from the break, our summer pride will be more intense. I want to see our team bring excitement and effort to every session. I want our team leaders to keep the intensity and focus high.”
Throughout the summer, teams have seen progress come at different times. For the Tahlequah Tigers, they’ve seen steady progress in the varsity camps with a lot of veteran players returning.
“We have a strong senior class, and we’re counting on them to set the standard for the 2026 Tigers,” Gilbert said. “Their attitude, work ethic, and commitment to the daily grind will establish the culture and direction of this football team as we prepare for the season.”
Teams will have the chance to meet until July 31, which starts another dead period for football that runs until Monday, Aug. 10. Until then, teams are going to do as much as they can to put the final touches on evaluation ahead of the official start of fall practices.
“For July, we have a few weeks before we get back on the practice field,” Botts said. “So we want to make sure our athletes are continuing to attend and make gains in all areas of speed and strength workouts. This is also where we want to see our leaders step up and establish their roles coming into the new season.”
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