MT. MORRIS – How ready was Mooseheart's football team to get started with its preseason preparations?

Scheduled to leave their cabins at their rural retreat at Camp Ross, Mooseheart's players were dressed and ready to practice at 5:45 when coach Gary Urwiler arrived, expecting to roust his troops for their first workout.

"We talked about it on Tuesday that we should get ready to go," Mooseheart senior Shawn McReynolds said. "We wanted to get up and out so we could get all the practice we can for our first game, because it's coming up really fast."

Preseason practice is taking place this year at Camp Ross, the 50-acre idyll located just southwest of Mt. Morris. The land was purchased for use by Mooseheart 50 years ago by the Moose fraternity and features a stream, a fishing pond and many forms of plants and animals in a setting where students go all summer to relax and have fun.

The atmosphere was different on Wednesday, where the sounds of whistles, encouraging coaches and straining athletes filled the air. The Ramblers return to Camp Ross this year after a one-year hiatus. They will stay there through Friday and then return to the Mooseheart campus to continue preparing for their Aug. 28 season opener -- a home game against North Shore Country Day.

“It's just nice to come out here,” Mooseheart senior Damion Moore said. “We missed it last year for a couple of reasons. But it's good to come back and get back to our roots. Ever since Coach (Gary) Urwiler came back, he's been trying to get everyone into out program.”

The seclusion allowed by Camp Ross gives the Ramblers a chance to not only focus on football, but also to bond as fellow classmates. The campus' students tend to disperse over the summer, and the reintegration at football camp brings the team quickly together again.

"I feel closer sometimes to a lot of teammates I don't know," Moore said. "Last year, there were some teammates I never talked to. Coming out here, I get to talk to people I haven't talked to in awhile., I get to meet the new kids and help them enter into the program."

The team's turnout is once again superb. Urwiler said the roster will likely have 35 players, certain to be better than half the male student body at the high school.

"The team's looking really good and really hungry," McReynolds said. "The seniors have known each other since freshman year. We've grown up together. We have good team chemistry. The lower classmen have stepped up and are practicing really hard. We really want to work to have a good season."

Not every senior has had a long career with the football team. Jasper Cheneyon's has been at Moooseheart through high school but is out for the football team in this, his final season. Wednesday, he earned some raves for his enthusiastic practice play.

"I never thought I'd play football," Cheneyon said. "But I saw some of the guys playing and I got interested in it. I don't want to regret not playing my last year of football. I might not play once I graduate, so I want to play now."

A year ago, Mooseheart finished 2-7 and missed the playoffs after consecutive seasons in the IHSA Class 1A bracket. This year also marks the Ramblers first competition in the Northeastern Athletic Conference, a league from which the conference champion earns an automatic postseason berth.

"It's exciting because it is our senior year," Mooseheart senior Jonell Crump said. "How we do could determine if I play football past high school. And we want to leave a legacy with the young kids, to be role models by giving our best effort"

Thoughts of playing a 10th game are still very much in the future. The Ramblers weren't even talking about their Week 1 contest, instead working on the fundamentals and trying to water the Camp Ross grass with their perspiration as much as possible.

"We all were really excited," McReynolds said. "We've talking about this for months, talking with each other about what positions we want to play and everything. Last year we had a kind of rebuilding year. This year, we're more mature and we've got a lot of team chemistry. We think we're going to do really well this year."