The Hays High Indians held their first football practice of the 2020 season on Monday evening. 80 players were in uniform following a 4-6 season in 2019.
Three different returning starters received Division 1 offers since the end of last season. Senior defensive end Gaven Haselhorst committed to Kansas State. Junior receiver Jaren Kanak received offers from Kansas State and Kansas. Junior linebacker Gavin Meyers has offers from Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas State. They join junior quarterback Dylan Dreiling who committed to Tennessee for baseball before his freshman year of school.
The Indians do return a deep set of talent for 2020, Tony Crough’s team has some questions to answer. Who will fill in the offensive line after multi-league selection Luke Fletcher graduated and is playing at Butler Community College. Brock Lummus also was a starter on the o-line and is at Butler to play baseball.
The Indians also need to find a kicker after Matt Goodale provided a late season boost.
Getting players to social distance when not in an active drill, reminding players to clean their gear (and themselves) daily, along with keeping position groups spread out and bringing their own water bottles was just a short list of new items they needed to be covered with consequences of COVID-19 still looming for teams across the state.
A trip to Wichita to place the East Blue Aces starts the season September 4th. All games will be aired on 96.9 KFIX, the KFIX app, and will be streamed on Hays Post.