CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The London Pirates held a practice that reminded them of a football game, but it was only the first Friday of training. Texas UIL rules allow teams to put on full pads at midnight, the first Saturday of practice.

"Seeing the stands, seeing all of the support out here," said London senior linebacker Ethan Goff. "The stands were filled. It was like going out on a Friday night game. It was amazing."

Larissa Liska

A new tradition that was brought in by first-year head coach Andy Smith.

"This is not normal," Smith said. "It's not like this everywhere to have this kind of community support, and it goes back really to coach (Robbie) Moreno and the former staff to building this community. There wasn't a high school here 14 or 15 years ago."

London's defense has a lot o

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