It’s less than a month away from the start of high school football practice and the Craig County boys are looking forward to another good season. Coach Jimmy Fisher and his staff have been excited about the participation and enthusiasm from the returning players.
“The Summer is going great with the older kids,” said Fisher. “The 2026 seniors, juniors and sophomores have been working extremely hard. Camps and vacations have been happening, but the opperclassmen participation has been strong.”
Craig is wrapping up a mandatory, two week VHSL Dead Period. The Rockets look forward to getting back after it this week when the dead period is over.
“We have not been able to do any 7-on-7 stuff yet but will get it going after the dead period,” said Fisher. “We have a lot of players returning from last year’s 10-2 team, returning nine starters on defense and eight on offense. That does not mean those players have secured a starting position, it just means that we have some talented guys on the roster. Who the starters will be is worked out through attendance, attitude and ability. We are going to be bigger, stronger and faster than last season, and hopefully that turns into wins. We did lose some tremendous football players and playmakers to graduation. Some new skill guys are going to get some great opportunities to shine this season.”
Fisher has been somewhat disappointed about the attitude of the younger boys.
“The attendance for the younger kids, grades sixth thru ninth, has not been what we hoped for,” he said. “We have a handful that have been very consistent and are working very hard, we have some we have seen a few times but not consistently and then we have a bunch that said they were going to play that we haven’t seen or heard from since school let out. Hopefully we see those kids start attending, and doing it consistently, after the dead period ends. I believe there is some talent in that sixth to ninth grade group but if they decide not to play or not to work hard then none of us will ever get to see what might have been.”
