The warm July sun was beating down on the practice field outside of Art Hass Stadium.

An Austin running back took a hand-off, burst up to the middle and hit the hole, but he stalled as the nearest linebacker approached. Whistles blew and players got back to their huddles.

As summer practice sessions roll on twice a week for the Austin Packer football team, there aren’t a lot of big hits or exciting plays. But it’s still a very important time for the team.

Austin head coach Brett Vesel said the squad uses the time to make sure every player knows his role on offense and defense.

“We’re just trying to get some of the mental stuff out of the way and learn some of the fundamentals so we can have basics in by fall camp,” Vesel said. “It’s a little bit of work, especially when there’s a lot of fun things to do in the summer.”

The Packers are coming off a breakthrough season that saw them go 5-5 overall and the team hopes to keep the momentum going. Austin graduated a lot of its offensive firepower from last season, but plenty of players are working out in the offseason, and there has been a strong core group of players that have been showing up to the summer workouts.

It can be difficult for high school players to commit too much time to a single sport in the summer due to family vacations and commitments to other sports.

Still, Vesel likes the number of players who have been showing up this summer.

“Our guys are pretty good,” Vesel said. “They want to get better and they know it’s going to take hard work to get better.”

Austin’s highlight of the summer is the football camp in Winona State, which it competed in over the weekend. The Packers had a solid start to the camp as they played well in scrimmages against Hill Murray and a Winona State recruit team.

“I thought we did really well against those teams,” Vesel said.

Austin’s football season starts Aug. 29 when it will host Rochester Mayo at 7 p.m. and the team will definitely have a lot of work to put in before that game.