Football season: Day 1

Sweat rolled from the foreheads of athletes at Tecumseh High School on Monday, Aug. 6, as the Indians held their first practice of the 2012-2013 season.The varsity players took over Indian Stadium from the junior varsity team at 6 p.m. after starting out their workouts with weight lifting. Tecumseh varsity coach Al Romano said he had 12 sets of five-minute workout sessions split with a break to ensure no problems with dehydration. A main water pipe issue at Indian Stadium has the hoses shut off and players drinking cups of water from Gatorade buckets.Positions were tentatively set with players knowing right from the start where they belonged.The Indians are looking at Clinton transfer Ben Dreslinski as the potential main starting quarterback and for good reason. Some, not all, of his first practice passes were a bit off the mark but they were thrown like darts and should give Tecumseh an advantage from the air when he gets on target. His stocky build should be another benefit when it comes to running the ball and taking hard, Southeastern Conference, hits.Tecumseh’s varsity team hits the gridiron for scrimmages at Ann Arbor Pioneer on Thursday, Aug. 16 and opens the regular season at Monroe Jefferson on Friday Aug. 24, at 7 p.m. Redford Union opted to drop from this year’s schedule and the Indians will play west of Grand Rapids at Grandville Calvin Christian instead.The first home game for the Indians is Friday, Sept. 7, against Ann Arbor Huron. Tecumseh has only three home games scheduled this season including competitions against Dexter in homecoming (9.28.12) and Adrian (10/12/12).“The game against Redford Union was going to be at home but to replace them we had to agree to play on the road,” said Romano.The Indians finished 2-7 overall last season but are looking, at least in preseason practice, like they can better that record this year.“We’re looking good,” said Romano. “But we have a lot of work ahead of us.”