Thanksgiving morning practice a great day for the Red Devils

When it comes to Thanksgiving traditions, being out on the football field is something the Tippecanoe Red Devils could really get used to. 

For the second time in four years, the Red Devils enjoyed a morning practice on Thanksgiving as they prepared for their state Final Four game against the state’s top-ranked Columbus Watterson squad. The game is Friday night at Mason High School, 7 p.m. kickoff.

The weather, albeit very cold, with the “feels like” temperature sitting at 20 degrees, didn’t deter many parents and alumni from coming out to the stadium in preparation for their biggest game of the year to date.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Tippecanoe coach Matt Burgbacher said. “It’s every person's dream to practice on Thanksgiving, and that means you are doing something right. To have the community, parents, former players, and alumni here is really neat because all of the alumni who have put this uniform on are living through these boys right now.”

“We are one of 28 football teams around Ohio practicing today, how great is that?”

The week leading up to the big semi-final game was a bit different for Burgbacher with school being out the last three days of the week. But the coach said the kids have been focused.

“The kids have done a great job preparing like champions, and this week has been no different,” he said. “It’s just another game… yeah, there is a lot more at stake, but we have done the same thing we have done all year, we just had a little bit more downtime.”

“The big thing is our preparation is done, now the kids can all go home and enjoy Thanksgiving with their families, they deserve it and need the time away. Then (Friday) morning at 10 a.m. at the team breakfast, we will be locked in and ready to go.”

Watterson is without a doubt the toughest team Tipp will have to face all year with quarterback Drew Bellisari. He is the son of former Ohio State linebacker Greg Bellisari and nephew of former Buckeye quarterback Steve Bellisari. He just committed to play his college football at Miami of Ohio. They are very talented as a team, and Burgbacher knows it will take his team to play their game to get the job done.

“We will worry about what we can control,” he said. “That’s how we play and prepare. Yeah, it can be overwhelming when you look at their results. We are prepping for their schemes, but we have stayed so focused on us, we don’t have time to worry about all of those things.”

“We have to beat them one time, this isn’t a best-of-five series, we have to play the best for 48 minutes of football.”

Burgbacher added for them to be successful, Tipp will have to execute and just be themselves. Everyone has to show up with their A-game and execute the game plan to the best of their ability.

“If we do that, we have a great chance of winning,” he said.