The Bulldogs opened practice under the lights at Midnight, Monday.
"First to start, last to finish".
That's what Nottingham High School Football Coach Nick Patterson calls the Bulldogs' motto for the 2012 football season, and the team is taking it quite literally.
Monday marks the first day that New York State high school teams are allowed to take the field, and Nottingham didn't even waste a minute.
The team hit the field at midnight sharp very early Monday morning. With an intensity level that made it seem like a championship practice.
That intensity is for good reason too, the teams have less than three weeks to prepare for season opening games. Nottingham kicks off the 2012 season with a date against their rivals from just a stone's throw away Christian Brothers Academy. That game will be played on August 31st, after which the Bulldogs will get into their Class A schedule, a difference from the past two seasons where Nottingham played in the state's largest division Class AA.
It's the first time a midnight practice has been done at Nottingham, although Coach Patterson employed this same idea two years ago in his last season at Tully High School.
