Edmondson putting its prep work in at sunrise

Red Storm get cracking at dawn with preparation, practice for Friday’s game

Edmondson quarterback Malik Taylor doesn’t usually roll out of bed at 5 a.m.

As with most teenagers, he’d much rather enjoy a little more sleep especially on a school day. Football practice, however, had the senior rising an hour early to catch two buses for the hour-and-a-half commute from Cedonia on the east side of Baltimore City to Edmondson on the west side. He had to be there at 6:45. “I usually get up around 6, but I was just happy we had practice,” Taylor said.

Most of his teammates showed up around sunrise, too, the only way they could practice. Edmondson is among a dozen Baltimore City high schools that closed early Tuesday and Wednesday and will close early Thursday with no after-school activities because they don’t have air conditioning.

“I was really impressed with the dedication they showed,” Edmondson coach Corey Johnson said. “This shows that they’re invested in the season. I know they want to play a night game on Friday and so I sent a message and told the captains to make sure to get the guys there and they came. I was really pleased this morning about that.”

With Caravel, from Bear, Del., scheduled to play the Red Storm at Poly on Friday at 7 p.m., Johnson knew the game would be jeopardized if they couldn’t practice until Friday. Until Wednesday morning, the Red Storm hadn’t been on the field since Friday’s 28-7 win over South Carroll.

“Our kids love the night games,” said Johnson, whose teams plays home games at 3:45, “and Caravel treated us so well up there last year with a night game that we wanted to afford them the chance to get parents to the game. Our parents went up there last year and we want their parents to come here. This was our best option and I’m really proud of the kids for coming through.

Senior nose tackle Jeremaine Lee said, “it was pretty tough” getting up more than 2½ hours early but that it’s worth it to play Friday.

“Coach Johnson told us we might have to cancel the game and I was like, ‘Can we do something about it?’ ” Lee said. “He told us about the early practice in the morning, so we got to do what we got to do to play that game.”

Lee, 5 feet 11 and 315 pounds, said he actually liked the morning practice better than afternoon practice.

Kevin Martin, a team captain with Taylor and Lee, said he didn’t mind either. He’s an early riser anyway.

He said some of his teammates were not thrilled about the early hour, but they showed up.

“Everybody wasn’t on it at first, because they had to go to school and stuff all sweaty, but they came around,” Martin said. “I had to tell them it was very important. If we miss a game, it will hurt us [in the playoff standings]. We all came together this morning.”

Johnson said the temperature hovered around 80 degrees when the Red Storm headed to their grass field down the hill behind the school Wednesday morning.

“It wasn’t cool, but it wasn’t like it is right now,” Johnson said of the afternoon temperature that soared to the mid-90s with a heat index over 100.

The players, who had access to showers after practice, wore helmets and shoulder pads for the 70-minute session but no other pads.

Last year the Red Storm beat Caravel, 20-8, and Wednesday they practiced breaking down the Buccaneers’ offense. Every defensive starter showed up for the early practice.

“They run a wing T offense, so that’s what we were really focused on,” Johnson said. “It was a big departure from the team we played last week, South Carroll. We focused on what happened when they were pulling guards and things of that nature and motion. We actually put in a different type of defense this week than what we did last week.”

Thursday morning, he said, they will focus on Caravel’s defense.

Even with less than an hour and a half of practice in the two morning sessions, the Red Storm should be prepared to go against Caravel on Friday night under the lights.

“That’s real big,” Martin said. “The night game, that’ll be cool for us. People can make it more, so there’s a lot of people at night games. The lights come on. Everybody gets to ball out.”

In addition to the competitive atmosphere, one other thing was on everyone’s mind.

“Hopefully, it will be a lot cooler,” Lee said.