Everyone has their favorite time of year. For some it’s Christmas or Halloween. For some it’s fishing season or elk season. Some look forward to summer, others to autumn.

For Sand Devils head football coach Leland “Bubba” Billie, it’s football season. Whistle around his neck, grass clippings clinging to his shoes, clipboard under his arm, he strides onto the practice field to begin the day’s practice, where his assistant coaches are already running the players through their warmups.

The Sand Devils held its summer football camp last week, which for Coach Billie marks the first day of the 2023 football season. There is no place Coach Billie would rather be. 

Coach Billie has a series of goals he wants to meet as he enters the new season.

“For the season, my goals are pretty straightforward,” he said.  “Win the North, win the region, make a run in the playoffs.”

His goals for football camp are sliced a little thinner. Summer football is his first opportunity to find his team leaders and captains, get his first good look at the skill levels of the incoming freshmen, and begin to sort his players into positions best suited to their skillsets and the needs of the team. 

Prospective Sand Devils football players reported to summer football camp the morning of Monday, July 10, which ran until Friday, July 14 at noon. The players – along with Coach Billie and some other coaches – stayed overnight, sleeping on cots and the floor of the football field house. The coaching staff and some volunteers cooked and prepared the meals. Between 50 and 60 students showed up for the camp.

Part of the five-day camp was dedicated to drills meant to develop the players’ physical strength, fitness and endurance. Other drills develop each player’s skills at their particular position. Quarterbacks and receivers do passing drills, linemen work on blocking and footwork, running backs do hand-off and hitting drills.

Coach Billie and his assistant coaches are always watching for shows of sportsmanship and who has heart.  

For Coach Billie, football camp is also about building camaraderie, brotherhood and a sense of team.

“I want the members of this team to support each other,” he said. “And not just during the football season, but throughout the rest of the school year and all their years at high school. The big thing we want to push – at camp and throughout the season – is pride in who we are, and pride in being a Sand Devil. We want that to carry over into the school and the larger community.”

At the end of the week, Coach Billie was happy with the results he got from football camp. A lot of the questions on his roster now have answers, and many blank spots on his depth chart now have a name on them.

“We had a great turn out, the kids worked hard all week long, and we got a lot of things figured out,” he said. “At the beginning of the week I had five people vying for varsity quarterback, and we have a frontrunner in that spot now. Our offensive line started separating themselves, and we have a group we’re looking at now. We’ll just go from there.”