Summer prep wrapping up for Central Coast Section football teams

“Zero contact,” said Hillsdale head coach Mike Parodi. “No weight room, no open gym, no conditioning. Nothing. It’s one of the few times (during the year) you’re not allowed to do a single thing.”

From July 29 to Aug. 4, fall sports teams are limited to “offseason” contact, during which time teams can go through conditioning and sport-specific drills, but not allowed to wear pads or helmets, or use football-specific equipment.

All of which means that by the end of next week, football teams should be ready to hit the ground running. It’s during the summer that coaching staffs are implementing offensive and defensive schemes, the time they are bringing players up to speed on techniques and assignments and when they get the most work done in preparation for the upcoming fall season.

“I love summer. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. For me, it’s football time,” Parodi said. “Spring practice and summer are extremely important. You need to get your foundation set. Otherwise, you’re behind.

“In my program, I’ve told my assistant coaches, ‘If you’re there (at practice) in the fall, great. But I need you here in the summer.’ That’s when we’re teaching, experimenting.”

All with the intention of being ready for that first day of practice. For a team like Hillsdale, which has been a stable and successful program for the better part of a decade, Parodi already has an idea of what kind of players he has. In the case of the Knights, they already have one piece in place with Liam Smith returning at quarterback.

But Parodi said he has six or seven linemen he has to sort through, as well as nearly a dozen guys vying for wide receiver spots in the Knights’ spread attack.

So while Parodi may be ahead of some teams, there is still plenty of work to be done to be ready for the season opener Aug. 26 against Silver Creek on the road in San Jose.

“Last year, we were pretty lucky. We returned almost everybody,” Parodi said. “On the flip side, we graduated a lot (from last season). Now the big question (for this season) is, we have the six, seven guys who can play line. Now it’s about finding out where they fit best.

“We have six, seven, eight kids who can play receiver. And you’re always trying to build depth, so could this kid be as good a receiver as little Bobby, because he’s going to be playing DB?”

But not everyone has the pieces. At South San Francisco, Frank Moro has a reclamation project on his hands. The Warriors coach from 2002 to 2013, Moro has watched the slow demise of the once-mighty program, one that has lost 24 varsity games in a row. The program reached its nadir last season when the school had to cancel the varsity football season because of a lack of players.

Moro, who was named head coach, again, in December, has spent the last seven months trying to rebuild a team. As he is trying to install his offensive and defensive philosophies, while also teaching a lot of the players how to play the game.

“We’re working on it,” Moro said. “We’ve had the guys. We’ve been working all summer. We got a little offense in and [Thursday] we’re going to work on some defense.”

Moro said the varsity team has about 30 players right now and a junior varsity squad has about half those numbers. He hopes both rosters swell a bit once students return to campus.

In the meantime, Moro will simply work with what he has for as much time as he’s allowed. A 1982 graduate of South City, Moro has been a bridge between the old-school football mentality, while at the same time accepting the way things are done nowadays.

“I had this talk with [the team] yesterday,” Moro said Thursday afternoon. “The last time I was here (as a coach), we had double days. … When I was playing, we had triple days.

“My point is, we used to have a lot of practice (time). … I’ve watched a lot of teams who won’t be ready [for their season openers].”

As far as Parodi is concerned, he’s glad to see players — and coaches — forced to take some time off, if for nothing more than to give everyone a chance to recharge their batteries and take a deep breath before plowing ahead for the next three months.

“I’m a fan of there should be time in the summer for kids to be kids. I don’t want other kids to be fearful to go on vacation because of football,” Parodi said. “After next Thursday, I won’t see them for two weeks.

“But come Aug. 5, we go six days a week.”