Columbus East players line up for a drill on the first day of football practice at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Area athletes had a much more favorable day for their first day of official practice than they did last year.
While temperatures reached the 90s for the first day of practice for fall sports in 2024, it was about 10 degrees cooler Monday when IHSAA schools could begin practicing football, volleyball, soccer, cross-country and boys tennis. Girls golf practice began Friday.
But for most teams, including the Columbus East and Columbus North football squads, Monday was just a continuation of what they have been doing for most of the summer.
“It’s called the first official practice, but we’ve been working hard all summer, all spring, all winter,” North senior quarterback Asher Ratliff said. “But it’s nice to be official. It means football season is right around the corner, so we’re all excited about that.”
Neither the Bull Dogs nor the Olympians went heavy on offense or defense Monday. East spent a lot of time on special teams, while North spent the first two-thirds of its afternoon practice in meetings and did some individual position drills and 7-on-7 plays, followed by conditioning, during its 45 minutes on the field.
“We’re mostly going through team expectations, so a heavy culture day, just getting everybody understanding, ‘Hey, it’s official season now, so change our mindset a little bit and give a little bit more intention to our effort and focusing in on getting ready to win a game Week 1,” North coach Logan Haston said. “Today is mostly about just getting back into the swing of things, going through some fundamentals and technique and less about scheme and plays today, kind of honing back in on some of those important technique things.”
The Bull Dogs are coming off an 8-2 season that included an undefeated mark in winning the Conference Indiana title. They lost a deep and talented senior class to graduation, but return three-year starters in quarterback Asher Ratliff, linebacker Anderson Horn and safety Sam Perry, along with four-year starting offensive lineman Drew Schiefer, who has five Division I scholarship offers. North also has added senior tight end-linebacker Parker Elmore, a transfer from Jennings County who has committed to Indiana University.
“It’s always good to have the first practice under your belt,” Schiefer said. “It felt really good to be out here. We had some good energy coming into the day, and we just have to build on this and continue getting better each and every day.”
“It’s been a great start,” Haston added. “We’ve really had a great summer, and we’re just kind of picking up where we left off in the summer. The team is starting to come together real well from a culture standpoint, and we’re starting to execute our offense and defensive schemes really well.”
East, meanwhile, is coming off its first winning season since 2020, going 6-4. The Olympians went undefeated in the Hoosier Hills Conference for the first time since 2020.
East will have an experienced quarterback under center in senior Kyson Villarreal, who is entering his third year as the starter.
“(The experience) has helped me a lot,” Villarreal said. “My sophomore year, I came in slow. Last year, I picked up the pace. I’ve got some nice guys around me this year. We’ve got a lot of good blockers, a lot of really good linemen and some good receivers.”
Senior wide receiver-safety Keaton Lawson and senior linebacker-safety Brody Miller also are three-year starters. Senior defensive back Joel Murphy will be one of the key pieces defensively for East, which gave up an average 35 points in its four losses last season. In the six wins, the Olympians gave up an average of 10 points per game.
“Based on last year, we’ve got to stop the run most importantly,” Murphy said. “We did well against the pass, but mostly it’s about stopping the run this year. We have to play being small, have good technique and play fast. You can’t let your eyes fool you. Keep your eyes on the running back, and watch the guards.”
East wants to take the next step and start adding more wins outside the conference. So far, the Olympians haven’t done that in 16 games, with the last non-conference win coming against Franklin Central in the sectional opener in 2020. East is determined to snap that streak this season.
“Obviously, that’s one of our goals is to win outside the conference. You want to win the conference, but we want to win games outside our conference, and then make a run in the tournament,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “We spent a lot of time this summer battling that opponent that’s between our ears. I didn’t think we played well in that sectional game (against Franklin). There were a few games we didn’t play well early in the season against B-South and Columbus North. A lot of it is just belief in themselves and being resilient and being mentally tough. We spent a lot of time talking about it this summer, and us as coaches have to build some of those things and make our guys believe that.”
One of the biggest thing East needs to do to add more wins on the schedule is having consistency for 48 minutes.
“Consistency and execution is really key, and that’s one of the things that kind of improved as the year went on for us last year,” Vogel said. “With having that experience back in certain spots, you’d hope that’s going to carry over from last fall to now, so we’re excited about this group.”
North will be on the field for its annual Blue-White scrimmage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Controlled scrimmages are Aug. 15, with the Bull Dogs visiting New Palestine and the Olympians hosting Whiteland.
North will host Whiteland, and East will visit Bloomington South in the regular-season openers Aug. 22. The Olympians host the Bull Dogs in the annual rivalry game Aug 29.
