Week one of official football practice for the Greene County Rams, and all the other high school football teams in Iowa, wraps up today. Today is the first day of full contact after two days of helmets and three days of helmets and shoulder pads.

Greene County’s first full contact practice is from 8 until 10 this morning. New head coach Caden Duncan has a bevy of starters back from the 2018 team that was 8-1 in the regular season, 8-2 overall, tied for the Class 2A District 9 title, and made the 16-team playoff field while maintaining a top 10 position in the 2A polls.

The senior class will be counted on heavily to provide leadership and to get the Rams into the win column. The lowest number of players in grades 9-12 in decades (45) have been participating in practice this week, so depth at certain positions could be an issue. Seventeen of the 45 are seniors and only 10 freshmen came out for football, meaning the Rams will not field a ninth grade team, also for the first time in decades. Instead of ninth/varsity doubleheaders, which has been the case for the majority of the times for years, there will be just the varsity game every week for Greene County.

Every Greene County game can be heard again this season on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com starting with the annual Cowbell game with Perry from Linduska Field in Jefferson on Friday, Aug. 30.