While most of us were sleeping at 12:01 this morning, the West Central Valley Wildcats football players got a jump on preseason practice. Today marked the fourth straight preseason the Wildcats football players started training just after midnight. West Central Valley head football coach Eric Addy told Raccoon Valley Radio last week that the credit for his midnight practice idea came from head coach Keith Hanks. Hanks, the former head coach at Sibley-Ocheyedan and Sioux City North, had a mentality of priding his young men on being the first players on the field the day official practice begins. So what do the Wildcats student-athletes think of a midnight practice on the first Monday of the preseason? Incoming senior Cole Sackett enjoys the temperatures of practice just after midnight. “I would say it’s definitely a lot cooler practicing at 12:01 a.m.,” Sackett said, “You definitely have a good feeling, you’re up working harder and everyone else is out sleeping.”

Incoming senior Carson Wadle adds midnight practice has a great atmosphere around it. “When you get the lights turned on at the beginning of the year in practice, it really gives you that feel of what Friday nights feel like,” Wadle said, “Makes you miss the Friday night lights (and) it makes you get ready for the games.”

After the practice session concluded, the Wildcats sat down to a homemade breakfast provided by the player’s parents. The Wildcats football players have the rest of the day off and day two of preseason practice isn’t until 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. Hear interviews from members of the West Central Valley Wildcats football team about their Midnight practice experience on the Guthrie County PM Sports Page, tonight at 6 p.m. on True Country K 107.9.