The first day of Flathead football practice wasn’t ideal. Both sessions of two-a-days were interrupted by rain, belying the hours of sunshine in between. The temperature, which had been in the 80s and 90s all week, dipped into the 50s after the second shower came through.

None of that mattered for first-year coach Kyle Samson.

“I’ve been waiting for this day since I first got the job,” Samson said.

“It’s a great day. The kids are out here with great excitement, great enthusiasm. They’re hustling around, they’re finishing. They’re doing the things that we’ve been trying to teach them all summer.”

But teaching a roving group of teenagers isn’t quite the same as installing a new offense in college. As the Braves trudge through their first week of practice, Samson and his coaching staff are trying to use the time they have available to get the team up to speed.

“The time. In college you have 24 hours in a day to get your stuff put in,” Samson said. “You have meetings all day.

“In high school the time isn’t there. We’re definitely not trying to install as fast or as much as we did in the college level. We’re just trying to break it down for them.

“We want to be very multiple in what we do, but at the same time we want to be good at what we do. So, we’re more about the execution than having, say, 35 different schemes.”

While installing offensive and defensive schemes is a priority in the two-week lead up to the season, Samson and the coaching staff are also trying to teach more than just what’s in the playbook.

“The biggest thing is an overall accountablity for each kid, being responsible for everything that they do,” Samson said.

“We’re also trying to bring a sense of physical and mental toughness. Understand the difference of being physically tough and also having that mental toughness to get through the grind of two-a-days and through the grind of a four quarter game. We want to become stronger in the fourth quarter, we don’t want to tail off.”

So far, Samson has found the team is quickly getting up to speed.

“They’re quick learners,” Samson said.

“They’ve really bought in to what we’re trying to do. They’re working very hard at getting into their playbooks and understanding the system. Obviously getting them up to game speed will be the big thing, but I think they’re doing a great job.”

After five straight losing seasons, and two years outside of the playoffs, Samson said he is also trying to reinstall pride in the once dominant program. To help carry that message, he has brought in a handful of Flathead grads on his staff, most famously recovering NFL running back Lex Hilliard.

“When I was playing at Capital, [Flathead] was one of the top three schools in the state every year,” Samson said.

“That [tradition] was the big thing in my mind. I wanted to hire coaches that had that Brave pride. I wanted guys that have been a part of the tradition at Flathead High School because I want to bring that back. I want to bring that winning tradition back.”