Lake Fenton — Since 2002, Marty Borski’s first year as Lake Fenton varsity football coach, the team has written its own film each season.

Borski was gone for a few years, and for a few seasons he was an assistant coach rather than the head coach, but by and large the Blue Devils have released sequels to the first film in 2002 every year since then.

The “movie,” of course, symbolizes a football season, and production on the 2024 film began on Monday with the first official day of practice.

So far, so good. Borski said he was concerned about the team’s chemistry when the team had team functions in the spring and summer, but that went better than expected. And for three days, the Blue Devils worked hard.

“It’s going well. We’re putting a lot of pressure on them quickly,” Borski said. “We’ve gotten a little more physical than we were before. So far it’s going well. I have no idea where we’re going to end up, but we’re just going to embrace it and enjoy the process in the meantime.”

“I don’t know where we’re going to end up. Everyone asks how we’re going to do this year. We don’t know. We’re going to get what we deserve, but we talk about enjoying the process. I said that last year. You never fast forward to the end of a movie. You have to buy into it so that the ending means something to you, and that’s the same here. I think we did a good job of that last year despite the incredible adversity we had. … We just kept showing up and playing football.”

The process is still in its early stages, but on the third day on Wednesday, an atmosphere of additional intensity was palpable in the camp.

“Getting in shape is the most important thing,” said Borski. “We’re doing that well. We’re building calluses, cuts, soft tissue and getting a bit of momentum. You have to build calluses. … We want to acclimatize as best as possible. So far, the training camp has been very physically demanding. At least as hard as possible without shoulder pads.”

The Blue Devils struggled with injuries and setbacks throughout last season,

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Lake Fenton finished the season with a 6-3 regular season record, qualifying for the playoffs. The season ended with a 40-13 loss to Freeland in the first round of the postseason, ending the year 6-4. One of the reasons for a successful season was the good chemistry between the teams.

“That was a problem at one point. We have a lot of new players,” Borski said. “We even have some that have never played football before. … But we’ve been practicing all winter and spring and putting everything into our older kids at some of our team activities, our camp and our summer stuff, and the camaraderie has been phenomenal. They’ve come together a lot quicker than I expected. I was hoping that by the time we get to the scrimmage, we’d have good chemistry on our team. I would never say it’s perfect. It’s always a work in progress, but these kids are very close-knit and come from different backgrounds. It’s the most diverse group of kids we’ve ever had, but they cheer each other on. It’s fantastic.”

The schedule

This season, adversity begins with a schedule that features just one home game among the Blue Devils’ first five games, including an away game against Goodrich on Sept. 13. The good news is that the team will finish the year with four straight home games, including the Metro League crossover game. The Blue Devils will get used to away tests when they play Bay City John Glenn in Wednesday’s scrimmage game, facing the hosts, Bay City Central and Alpena.

“Our league is very physical … so this was the perfect place for us,” Borski said. “We’ll see power football, some spread and some things in between.”