photo by: Mike Shaw/Special to the Journal-World

The Lawrence High football team runs onto the field before the game against Shawnee Mission West in Overland Park on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023.

For the first time since November, the sounds of football pads popping will return to Lawrence High School on Wednesday night. It might not be a complete game simulation, but it’s the closest thing for the team since the end of last season.

After completing their LHS draft on Monday, the Chesty Lions will compete in a Wednesday night scrimmage, splitting the team into team Chesty and team Lion, with coaches selecting someone from the starting depth chart. It’s a chance for the players to see where they stack up against their teammates ahead of the season.

“It’s competition — it’s team Chesty vs team Lion,” Lions coach Clint Bowen said. “I tell the kids all the time, whether it’s Uno with your 3-year-old cousin or the Super Bowl, your job is to win.”

The Lions have spent their summer practicing in the heat and humidity, going from lifts to practices to meetings to other scrimmages. Monday night’s draft was a chance to let loose as a unit. To keep with draft traditions, the team booed the announcer of the picks. The top five draft picks were interviewed by a Sports in Kansas reporter to add to the draft-night allure.

Team Lion, led by offensive coordinator Taylor Stuart, owned the first pick and selected senior quarterback Banks Bowen. Team Chesty, led by defensive coordinator John Ely, drafted junior tight end and defensive end Wyatt Hendricks with his first pick. Others in the top 10 picks were sophomore running back and safety Ethan Curry, junior running back Tahj Edwards, junior defensive end Devin Foster, senior tackle Elijah Gray, junior wide receiver and safety Jaxon Becker, senior guard and nose tackle Andrew Nelson, senior center Ty Silvers and junior guard Bailey Johnson.

The team has a solid junior class, as shown by the five players drafted in the top 10, but the team has promising young players overall. Bowen said that he believes Curry is the highest-drafted rising sophomore in LHS draft history. Curry’s freshman performance in a playoff game against Derby left a lasting impression on the coaching staff.

“It’s a good pick because he’s a dynamic athlete,” Bowen said. “He’s that kid that athletically, he gets it, and things happen for him. He’ll help us in a lot of ways. In the return game, he’ll help us playing defensive back, tailback, playing wideout. He’s just that kid.”

Team Lion holds an advantage by having the starting quarterback, but Team Chesty has built a run-heavy team. How well they can score against the passing offense of the Lion team with its duo of Becker and Bowen will be a critical point.

“It’s been a while since we put the pads back on, but in practice, we’ve had pads on, and we’ve gotten more physical, which is something the pads help with,” Hendricks said.

Luckily, the top two team Lion picks are confident in their team’s running ability. They scooped up two guards and a tackle, Hendricks at tight end and Edwards at running back. Edwards looks forward to running through people again, starting with this Wednesday night scrimmage.

For Hendricks, he wants to see his team compete. Edwards said that competition and discipline were strengths of this team, and Hendricks wants to see more of that. Overall, the team has gotten a lot closer to a product ready for Friday nights, with Wednesday night being an opportunity to play at a near full-speed glimpse at how it looks.

Wednesday’s scrimmage will start at 7:30 p.m. with the freshman team before the varsity game, starting at 8 p.m. and going through 9 p.m. at LHS.

“You turn the lights on in a stadium, and you invite some friends and family, and it creates a different environment for these kids,” Bowen said. “To expose them to this kind of environment as many times before real games is important. It’s more Friday night than a Tuesday, 7 a.m. practice.”