photo by: Nick Krug

Free State players Jay Dineen (50) and Ben Holiday (53) square up against each other on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 during a Baker University football camp at Lawrence High School.

When Free State High football players walked off of the field at Lawrence High on Tuesday following their day at Baker University camp, they were a little disappointed.

There were too many little mistakes that caused problems when they scrimmaged against St. Thomas Aquinas, Shawnee Mission South, Shawnee Mission East, Shawnee Heights and Blue Valley North, including some missed assignments and problems when lining up in their offensive formations.

“I think we’ve taken a step back today,” senior Zion Bowlin said. “At the (Kansas University) camp (last week) we were doing pretty good on offense and defense. But today, I don’t think we were locked in.”

Three weeks into summer practices and the Firebirds expect themselves to be playing better on a daily basis.

Of course, the Firebirds would rather have an off day now than closer to the season opener, but they were hoping to look better against top competition.

The Firebirds, along with Lawrence, will play in the Baker camp on Thursday at FSHS. It will be the last time the Firebirds play in pads this summer — going with only helmets and shoulder pads on Tuesday.

“The thing that I want to see us do better is be more sharp and polished,” Free State coach Bob Lisher said. “Just lining up correctly, getting to the football, doing the little things that you make you a better football team and see some leadership take shape. That’s what I want to see this time of the year besides getting better fundamentally and all that.”

In the scrimmages, the Firebirds still had plenty of highlights. Their defense looked strong at times, including their new look in the secondary. Senior Zack Sanders, who started at cornerback for the past two years, will play free safety and junior Daniel Bryant will move from strong safety to cornerback.

“I actually like it a lot,” Sanders said. “Changing from corner to safety, I was safety in my younger days, and I didn’t play it my sophomore year because we had Bryce (Torneden). But now, I’m kind of filling the role. Watching Bryce, I get things from him. I know exactly what to do — be aggressive at safety.”

Bowlin said the scrimmages were like a benchmark for the players, showing how strong they are against certain teams. It was a similar format from the KU camp, but without the atmosphere of having dozens of teams there.

“I see improvement, but I also see a lot of things where we thought we were doing well last week and we didn’t do so well today,” Lisher said. “But that’s typical. Hopefully we can get a lot of that worked out of us before we actually get into it this fall. That’s the reason we do this.”

Meanwhile, Lawrence’s football team is happy to see progress since its team camp opened three weeks ago.

The Lions have plenty of players sliding into new starting roles and they are starting to become more comfortable.

“We’re getting the hang of it,” senior running back Trey Moore said. “A lot of guys are stepping up into their roles as they should be. Just getting more into the flow.”

That includes junior quarterback Dante Jackson, who is preparing for his first year at the position in his football career. He connected on a few passes to junior receiver Ekow Boye-Doe over the middle.

“I feel a lot more confident,” senior safety Cade Burghart said. “Dante is just getting the hang of the position at quarterback, so he’ll be looking good. The defense is coming together, too.”

Burghart noted the Lions have made big strides in the weight room over the past few weeks, which they hope will translate on the field throughout the year.

“We’ve progressed a lot,” said Moore, who missed the final seven games last year with a fractured scapula in his left shoulder. “Learned a lot of new plays. Just made a lot of transitions from positions and stuff with new players. That helps us a lot.”