Football | 8/7/2017 5:15:00 PM

    WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – After a weekend of testing, paperwork, picture sessions and more paperwork, the West Liberty University football team hit the turf at West Family Stadium on Monday afternoon for the first practice session of the preseason.
    As always, head coach Roger Waialae and his staff kicked off the afternoon's "festivities" with the traditional conditioning test. The team is broken up by position into three groups for a series of 16 timed 55-yard sprints with a 15-second break between each one.
    Most of the Hilltoppers passed with flying colors while a few found themselves making use of the wastebaskets strategically placed at the corners of the field to relieve some exercise-induced nausea. In the end, however, the point was driven home.
    "The biggest challenge with the new practice rules is the effect on conditioning," Waialae said, referring to the NCAA's recently-imposed ban on two-a-day practice sessions for football. "Once they went through a few two-a-days, guys were in shape by the time classes started whether they came to camp that way or not.
    "They don't have that luxury now so it's more important than ever for them to be in shape when they get here so that we can help them get into football shape by the time the season starts."
    The coaches gave the players a few minutes to re-hydrate and recover following the sprints before breaking out the footballs for an hour of light drills.
    Working in just shorts and t-shirts, the team split into various position groups to work on such basic fundamentals as first steps, handoffs and coming out of stances along with various offensive and defensive sets and calls.
    The Black and Gold will still be in shorts and t-shirts when they return to the field Tuesday at 3 p.m. for Day Two of preseason camp.