RIDGELAND PANTHERS
A season removed from their seventh region championship in their previous 13 campaigns, 2020 was one of the toughest seasons the proud Ridgeland Panther football program has ever had to endure.
Injuries, youth, inexperience, COVID-19 quarantines and one of the most difficult schedules ever put together all conspired in a 1-7 season that saw the team miss the playoffs, in addition to having to cancel their final two regular season games due to issues with the pesky virus.
But with the dawn of each new season comes a renewed sense of optimism and as Kip Klein begins his third season at the helm, he said just having a normal summer — one without the constrains of COVID-19 protocols — was a big boost.
“It really has been great to get back to normal practice,” he said. “Last summer, we were having to run multiple practices. We couldn’t all be on campus (at the same time), so we had to move some (practices) to night time and it just seemed like we never got any kind of rhythm. It was up into August before we were able to get the entire team together at one time.
“This year, we’ve had no hiccups in summer workouts. We’ve gone Monday through Thursday, 8 to 11 a.m., and been able to do our weight room and agility work and
then get to the field for actual football drills and stuff like that. Our guys have been getting the equivalent of about 12 hours a week of lifting and football work where
last year we were probably at two hours a week at the most because of the way we had to do everything.”