Time to rebuild at Heritage Hall

Gone are longtime starters like Barry J. Sanders, Sterling Shepard and Cale Courtney, along with several others in last year’s senior class at Heritage Hall.

Now, coach Andy Bogert is going back to basics in his coaching with Tuesday’s first practice.

“We’re young and inexperienced,” Bogert said. “We can’t assume these guys know what the guys in the past knew. So we’re doing a lot of teaching early, and it’s a good time to teach, since we’re not in pads. We’re working on our basics and getting our terminology down.”

To emphasize Bogert’s point about the Chargers’ youth, there are 41 players on the team currently, and 19 of them are freshmen.

“We have a really nice freshman class, a really good group,” Bogert said. “But as far as getting on the field, there will only be a few of them that will get a chance. So we’re basically playing with 22 or 23 kids.”

And there’s no rush to get to the regular season. Clinton, Davis and Kingfisher — all state championship contenders in their respective classes — are on the Chargers’ schedule in the first four weeks.