ADNA — Adna’s football field is a fair bit removed from the highway and the hubbub. But the stillness of midnight, well before the crack of dawn Wednesday, made it even easier to hear Aaron Cochran across the grass, ushering in a new era of Pirate Football to his squad:
“Gosh dang it, it’s good to be back!”
The WIAA-mandated dead period as Tuesday turned to Wednesday, and Cochran and his Pirates didn’t wait around, hitting the field to start their drills as early as the rules would allow.
The midnight practice was new to the Adna program, but not for Cochran, who held them the past three years at Goldendale.
“We want to be the first on the field,” he said. “That’s kind of the goal. The kids like it, and it starts off the year well. It’s just good energy.”
“Energy” is a big word around the Pirate program, after Adna stumbled across the finish line with three losses in its final four games in 2022 to end the season in the crossover round with a 5-5 overall record.
Late in January, the Pirates tabbed Cochran to take over the helm after he led Goldendale to back-to-back state trips. He and his family had moved back across the mountains well before the school year ended, letting him start to get to know his players and the community as well as beginning to set a standard in the weight room.
“The work that they put in the weight room together brings them together,” Cochran said. “Every amount of time they can spend together I think is helpful, just for them to learn how to communicate with each other.”
That soon turned into summer workouts and practice, and Wednesday, things got a whole lot more real with the beginning of training camp.
“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Cochran said. “I’m excited. But I have trepidation.”
Despite plenty of excitement and energy, Wednesday was still very much a first practice. From the opening whistle, the Pirates needed to try multiple times to break into their stretching lines before Cochran was satisfied with their synchronization. Plenty of balls were misjudged, underthrown, or dropped, and coaching breaks to work on basic fundamentals were regular and common.
Adna isn’t a well-oiled machine yet, but on a balmy night after one of the hottest days of the summer, with flying dusk critters swarming around just about every helmet, the Pirates broke out their oil can earlier than just about anyone in the area to get to work.
“The kids are great to work with,” Cochran said. “We just have a lot of work to do.”
Aside from Adna, only Morton-White Pass got such an early jump on training camp.
Like the T-Wolves in East County, the Pirates were set to stay on campus after their late night to get in early morning work, with their second practice scheduled for 9 a.m. to keep anyone from having to drive home in the dead of night.
It all served to formally kick off the countdown clock — 16 days long — before the season begins for real, when Adna hosts defending state champs Napavine.
“I feel excited, but we have a lot of work to do,” Cochrain said. “There’s a lot of growth that can be had. It’ll get more efficient. By the time the end of the summer (comes), we’ll be fairly efficient. But right now, it’s just working the kinks out.”
