LAGRANGE – The LaGrange High football team didn’t have a spring practice this year, but that doesn’t mean the coaches weren’t busy.

Head coach Dialleo Burks and his coaches have spent the past two weeks working with players at Gardner Newman Middle School, leading up to Friday’s spring game at the school’s football stadium.

Burks felt it would be an excellent opportunity to not only get to know some of the future Grangers, but to help further solidify the relationship between the LaGrange High and Gardner Newman football programs.

“One of my main things is getting our programs in line,” Burks said at the close of Friday’s scrimmage. “We want our middle school on the same page as us, doing the same base concepts that we’re doing. And it’s just learning the guys.”

Burks said the players all responded positively to being led by the high-school coaches.

“You wouldn’t believe the amount of energy these guys got just because coach said something to them,” Burks said.

The players involved were current seventh-graders and eighth-graders, so some of them will be joining the high-school team this summer.

“I’m excited to see what we’ve got coming up,” Burks said. “It gives us a chance to see what we have.”

As for the high-school team, it will begin its summer program in June, with official preseason practice set to get under way in late July.

Because LaGrange didn’t have a spring practice, it will have two preseason games before opening the season against Callaway on Aug. 19.

OF NOTE: For more on the spring practice with the middle-school players, as well as what’s going on with the high-school team, see Monday’s sports section.

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports