A sign that fall is right around the corner, high school football teams around Iowa begin practice today. It’s Eric Addy’s first practice serving as head coach of the West Central Valley football team. This is Addy’s first head coaching job, he previously served as an assistant coach at Des Moines North High School. He sees the importance in academics for the young men he coaches and says he’s designed some fun ways to reward success in the classroom. “Throughout the team, we’re going to pick groups and draft some guys into academic teams. We’re going to keep track of their academics and I know Principal Wilson and the rest of the West Central Valley staff already do a great job of staying on top of everyone’s academics so they’ll help us out with grade checks. Whatever group has the best grade point average at the end of the semester, we’ll have some sort of reward for them.”

We’ll talk with Addy about more of his ideas to keep his team successful on and off the field, today on Let’s Talk Guthrie County. It airs during the 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. hours on K107.9 and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.