Lyons hits the road for practice

Updated: August 8, 2011 5:10PM

Preseason football practice begins Wednesday, which means Lyons will get another taste of training camp in an NFL setting.

For the third consecutive year, Lyons coach Kurt Weinberg is taking his team to Wisconsin for the start of preseason practice.

Lyons will spend Wednesday through Saturday on the campus at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, just outside Minnesota’s Twin Cities. The team will use the same meeting rooms and stay in the same dormitories used by the Kansas City Chiefs, who trained in River Falls from 2002-09.

Weinberg is no stranger to River Falls. Although this is his third Lyons team he will take to River Falls, Weinberg took his former team, Highland Park, to River Falls from 2002-08.

“We are pretty immersed in football for 3 1/2 to four days,” Weinberg said. “We do some fun things like going to the Mall of America (in Bloomington, Minn.). We also go bowling one night.”

In Weinberg’s first year, Lyons went to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington for an organized team camp that was held for nearly three days in June or July. But organizing and affording two overnight stays proved to be too much. The following year, Weinberg asked his team if they would like to go to Illinois Wesleyan or Wisconsin.

“It was a landslide for River Falls,” Weinberg said.

Players and their families are willing to pay for the trip and fund-raisers are held during the year. Weinberg charters two buses to provide transportation for 75 players and nine coaches. The university maintains the practice fields and Lyons is allowed to use large equipment like blocking sleds.

Lyons must bring the rest of its own equipment. Weinberg said Lyons is the only high school that will train at the site this week.

Lyons will try to take advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures and hold double-session practices, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The morning session starts at 10:30 a.m. and the afternoon starts at 2 p.m.

“They have quality facilities and it’s cooler there than it is here, about five to seven degrees,” Weinberg said.

So far, Lyons’ preseason practices in Wisconsin have led to successful season-opening debuts. Lyons is 2-0 in season openers against Plainfield Central under Weinberg. Lyons won 38-6 last year and 31-8 in 2009. Lyons hosts Stevenson in this year’s opener at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26.

“I think the coaches develop pretty good relationships within the staff,” Weinberg said. “It’s fun. We get a ton of football stuff done. We could do it at home, but it’s total immersion. There are no brothers or sisters and no girlfriends and wives.”

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