Lampasas quarterback Colton Perkins tucks the ball away and makes a break down field during Wednesday morning’s practice. The Badgers are living in the moment.

Despite being picked to reach the playoffs for a second consecutive year by several high school football publications and websites, with some predicting Lampasas will win the District 25-3A championship, the Badgers are not looking too far forward.

Although the team goals are clearly set, Lampasas head coach Joey McQueen wants his players to focus on each day and each game as it comes.

If they do that, good things will come.

“No matter what our record is, we want to be district champs,” McQueen said. “When you do that you make the playoffs.”

But during the first week of twoa day practices, the coach was more concerned with getting the little things right.

“Mainly we are checking for three things,” McQueen said after Wednesday’s practices. “Number one is if they are in the huddle right. Number two is how fast they’ve gotten from the huddle to snap the ball, and number three is their alignment.”

Tonight, the Badgers will show what they have learned during their first week of practice at the team’s intrasquad scrimmage. The scrimmage will take place at the Lampasas High School field beginning at 6:30 p.m.

So far, the coach has no complaints about his players’ preseason performance.

McQueen said all his players showed up to the first day of practice in shape and well conditioned, which has allowed the staff to focus their attention on perfecting the minor technicalities.

After tonight’s scrimmage, the Badgers have two additional preseason scrimmages -- at home against Smithville and on the road versus Waco Connally -- before they open the season at Manor Aug. 27.

While McQueen is completely confident his players and staff will be prepared when the opening kickoff takes place, he admits his concerns revolve around one team: Lampasas.

With an influx of juniors moving up from the junior varsity team, McQueen wants to acclimate his newcomers to the pressure and excitement that surround varsitylevel football.

“Going from JV to playing under the Friday night lights [is a dramatic change],” the coach said. “We hope that the kids we have back from the [2009] team will kind of calm them down.

“But I think we as a coaching staff can do a lot of that. We’ve got to prepare them so that when they go to games they are not worried about if they are scared or not.”

If the Badgers are going to live up to the lofty predictions surrounding them and reach the playoffs for the second time after suffering through consecutive winless seasons in 2007 and 2008, they will have to survive a difficult schedule.

Four of the Badgers’ non-district opponents are larger Class 4A schools. Once the district schedule begins, Lampasas will be tackling another tough group of opponents, including Burnet, Llano and twotime state champion Liberty Hill (2006 and 2007).

As the district’s largest school, Lampasas knows if it finishes the season as one of the top three teams it will automatically play in the Division I bracket of the Class 3A playoffs where Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine predicts the Badgers will advance to the state semifinal game.

“It’s exciting with all of the high expectations,” McQueen said. “We’re going to be realistic, push our kids and try to have a good program.”

And they plan on doing it one day at a time.