LYLE — It’s the first week of practice for the Lyle-Pacelli football team and head coach Adam Hurley is right in his element. Hurley is in his first year as head coach for the Athletics and he’s brought a disciplined and high-energy approach to the team that he hopes pays off.

He’s certainly starting to win over some of his players, including senior running back Patrick Murphy.

“He’s way more intense and he wants to get after it. He demands 100 percent all of the time and you don’t get to take plays off,” Murphy said. “The coaches get on you and they give positive reinforcement when you do something good. They’re going to ride you all day.”

Hurley is a graduate of Chatfield High School and he’s been an assistant varsity coach and a JV assistant coach at Chatfield. Hurley, who played for the Chatfield team that advanced to the section title game in 2004, is excited to take on his first head coaching job with LP.

“There’s a lot of things I did not expect with the different hoops that you’ve got to jump through. Overall, I’m liking it a lot. It’s a process that we’re in,” Hurley said. “I know a lot of the players already from the summer. We have a few new faces that I’m getting to know in the first few days. It’s going pretty good.”

Hurley started working at LP in June and he ran the strength and conditioning program over the summer. He also ran the strength and conditioning program when he was at Chatfield.

The Athletics finished last season 0-9 overall, but the team feels it can compete under Hurley. LP senior lineman Lucas Anderson said that the practices have been harder this season, but he’s hoping that work makes LP better on the field.

“We’re optimistic about this season,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of excitement and we’re confident. We’ve can’t take days off and we’ve got to keep pushing.”

Hurley said the speed of the Athletics will be the biggest asset the team needs to build on if it wants to be effective.

“I like to have team speed and we’ve worked a lot on speed this summer,” Hurley said. “We’re going to be disciplined and we’re going to come at you. We’re going to go ground and pound and run it right up the gut.”

Hurley has had to rely on the LP seniors to help him along as he’s had to make the adjustment to working with a nine-man team for the first time.

“This is brand new going to nine man,” Hurley said. “Defensively will be the biggest adjustment where you have to stop the same amount of backs with less guys. I’m sure there will be some growing pains, but I’m excited for it.”

Murphy said that LP doesn’t feel like a winless team after a big summer of work and some intense practices leading up to the season.

“We think we can compete now,” Murphy said. “We have a coach that works us, gets us into the weight room and runs us. That’s going to help us throughout the season.”

LP will open its season at Sleepy Eye/St. Mary’s 7 p.m. on Aug. 31 and it will host Spring Grove in its home opener Sept. 8.