ROXANA - The Roxana High football team had a strong summer preparation of work for the upcoming 2023 season. The Shells even hosted a seven-on-seven passing competition with Alton, Marquette Catholic and Hardin Calhoun recently at Charlie Raich Field.
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On Monday, Roxana's boys joined other area teams and kicked off 2023 pre-season practices.
The Shells played well and had good things happen during the 7-on-7 competition at Roxana as the evening went on.
"It's going great," said Roxana head coach Wade DeVries in an interview conducted during a break in the event. "Everybody gets to play, everybody gets to compete and have fun."
DeVries said that his team was looking good and played well.
"They look good, man," DeVries said. "The kids like to compete, they like to play, they come out here, we have fun, work hard. We're getting ready."
The Shells are coming off a 7-4 campaign, where they made the IHSA Class 3A playoffs for the second time in the last three years and defeated Hillsboro 13-7 in the first round before losing to Fairbury Prairie Central 41-20 in the second round. DeVries has many returners from last year's team and believes things will go well this season.
"We have a lot coming back," DeVries said. "It's hard to say wins and losses because I don't know the other teams are on the schedule. But we've got a lot of guys coming back; a lot of these guys have played for us for two years, And so, we feel real good about where we are right now. But there's always going to be room; that's why we're here right now."
The Shells also had a team camp with Collinsville and a camp in July.
"We're always looking to get better," DeVries said.
Riverbender.com will visit a Roxana football practice soon for more of a look at the returnees and the season.
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