Phil Katzenmeier insists the first day of Eudora High football practice a week ago today was no different than usual for him.

After 16 years as an assistant coach at Eudora, Katzenmeier officially took over for his first practice as head coach. He’s the fourth coach in four years for the Cardinals, but it’s a back-to-normal move for his players.

When previous coach Jesse Owen — now head coach at Olathe East — was about to be announced as coach in April 2014, several players and parents voiced their support for Katzenmeier at a school board meeting. A year later, they received their wish.

“I was thinking about this last night, ‘Well, that was my first practice as a head coach again,'” Katzenmeier said. “It didn’t feel like it. It felt like I’ve been doing it forever. So I’m really looking forward to the games, but as far as back in the routine, I’ve been working with these guys for so long and doing the same type of stuff. So that part hasn’t been a big flash.”

Eudora High football coach Phil Katzenmeier leads the Cardinals through a practice Friday, Aug. 21, 2015.

Katzenmeier’s offensive and defensive schemes are similar to ones used by longtime Eudora coach Gregg Webb, who left after the 2012 season to coach at Truman High in Independence, Missouri. Katzenmeier was a head coach for 10 years at Gypsum-Southeast of Saline before starting at Eudora. “We’ve changed it up a little bit, but we’re back to what we started at freshman year,” senior linebacker Travis Neis said of the defensive game plan. “It’s coming back in my mind and pretty easy thinking of it.”

Despite entering the season with high expectations following a 5-4 record last year, the Cardinals won’t have their usual depth. Katzenmeier said “a little less” than 40 players are in the program this season, which will lead to many players lining up on both sides of the ball and some changes in how much they hit in practice.

“It’s not going to affect us a whole lot,” senior running back Grant Elston said. “We’re going to have about 14 guys who play (all of the time). That’s a very low number. We’re going to have at least nine going both ways. So it’ll be fun, and we’ll be tired, but we’re used to it.”

In the summer, the Cardinals played in three team camps and used the experience to prepare for the season with low participation numbers.

“In fact, we had a group of kids this summer that did a lot,” Katzenmeier said. “We had about 12 of them, and we called them the ‘Dirty Dozen’ because they did everything.

“We get to do so much in the summer, and so the guys that are involved in the summer are way ahead. So now we’re just trying to get other guys caught up in the first two days. We can’t do much physically, contact-wise. So it’s just kind of getting the routine this week.”

The Cardinals return eight starters on defense, led by first-team All-Frontier League selection Neis, senior linebackers Tanner Beebe and Matthew Buchhorn, junior linebacker Ryan Verbanic and senior defensive backs Elston, Griffin Katzenmeier, and Zach Courbat.

On offense, they will be rebuilding their entire offensive line, but players predicted it wouldn’t be a problem.

“We knew that’s what it was going to be like,” Elston said of the offensive line. “They just had to fill in. Our linemen last year were pretty good. But I think this year, they are going to do fine. They aren’t as big, but they’re mean. So that works.”

Katzenmeier added: “Defense will be really solid. I always say you will be as good as your offensive line, but as bad as your defense. We won’t be bad, because our defense is pretty good.”

Even with another coaching change, the Cardinals are happy to return to some of their normal ways.

“I like having Katz as coach,” Neis said. “Just going back to like Webb’s coaching, which I did freshman year. It’s going pretty well.”