Heat + Coaching Ingenuity = High School Football "Midnight Madness"
KRUM (CBSDFW.COM) - The CBS 11 Storm Team has weather across Dallas/Fort Worth in the triple digits. But the heat won't be so bad for one North Texas high school football team, because their coach has found a creative way to beat the heat.
The Krum High School football team still has two-a-day practices but the first one starts when the clock strikes twelve. They call it "Midnight Madness!"
Coach Gary Robinson started "Midnight Madness" five years ago as a way to get the community excited about the upcoming football season. "At nine o'clock on that Sunday night they have bounce houses and all kinds of competitions on the field," he said, detailing the atmosphere. "The cheerleaders are there. The band is there. We introduce the volleyball team, the cross county team, the band and everybody that's involved in Fall sports."
Apparently the atmosphere is so electric that it isn't just the community that gets hyped. "There's a lot of adrenaline flowing. The excitement of the new season starting up and just so many people being out there and cheering them on," Robinson said, admitting, "Even I get fired up and pumped up. I get chills. It's almost like going out for a Friday night game."
Midnight Madness may sound like a wild, chaotic event but it's actually very structured. Think of it like a football practice pre-game show. "Everybody from the community comes out. And then at 12 o'clock, whenever we go out to practice, they make a big spirit line for us from the locker room," Robinson explained. "All of the kids in the high school program get to run through it. The band's playing and then we start our warm up."
Coach Robinson says Midnight Madness is a win/win for the Krum Bobcats football program. It gives the players a real "game feel" and does it without exposing them to the scorching heat. "It's another reason to have a practice at Midnight -- it's a lot cooler," he said. "We end up going from about 12:01 to 2:30 a.m. Then we'll let 'em go home and get some sleep and we'll bring 'em up again early in the morning and have them out about 10 o'clock, before it gets too hot."
Midnight Madness kicks off for the community on Sunday, August 4. The players get suited up and ready for practice at 11:00 p.m. and hit the field Monday morning at 12:01.
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