With some replacing to do to its lineup, the St. James High School football squad began its summer off-season activities in earnest last week.

The Tigers began its participation in the Rolla 7-on-7 Passing League last week. That passing league will be held on Mondays throughout June at the Rolla High field, which just had its turf replaced a couple weeks ago.

Tiger head coach Dusty Craft said the team’s summer participation will be limited mostly to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays during June and July. “We want to give the players a chance to be kids during the summer,” Craft said. “We want them to have some days for themselves.”

In June, action will include weight training from 6:30-7:15 a.m. and Organized Training Activities (OTAs) from around 7:30-8:30 a.m.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be weight lifting days, and in July OTAs will include speed days on Tuesdays and agility on Wednesdays, both from 7-8 a.m.

The Tigers continue Rolla’s 7-on-7 Passing league through Mondays in June and then on Mondays in July will host the St. James 7-on-7 Passing League at Tiger Field. Cuba, Owensville, St. Clair and Salem will participate in the St. James 7-on-7 event on Mondays.

Dead Week, where coaches can have no contact with players, will be June 29-July 3, then OTAs start up again July 6.

The Tiger Team Camp will be held July 21-22 to prepare for a couple of full-contact team camps. The St. James Full-Contact Team Camp is scheduled for July 23 at Tiger Field, featuring St. James, Southern Boone, Cuba and possibly Salem starting at 5:30 p.m.

St. James is then to participate in the Branson Team Camp July 28-30.

That will end the Tigers’ summer off-season activities.

The first day of Missouri fall sports practice is set for Monday, Aug. 10, and weather permitting the Tigers are to practice from 3:30-6 p.m. Monday through Friday of that week. And on Saturday, Aug. 15 the Tiger Red and White Scrimmage will be held, with practice to be from 9-10 a.m. followed by the scrimmage from 10-11 a.m.

St. James will return to the Sullivan Jamboree at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 at Sullivan High Field.

STJ then opens its 2026 season by hosting Salem Friday, Aug. 28.

Long before August comes, however, Craft and his staff will have to find some answers on both offense and defense. The Tigers lost a number of key players to graduation from last year’s 4-7 unit.

Craft has around 50 players competing in the current summer program.

“It’s a good group; a solid group coming in,” said Craft, entering his fourth season as head coach of his alma mater. “We started June 1 and they show up and work hard. We have definitely saw some things we need to work on, and we saw some bright spots too.”

There will be plenty of opportunities for new or junior varsity Tigers to move up and claim starting varsity spots. St. James lost to graduation all five starting offensive linemen and two starting defensive lineman along with two-way WR-DB standouts Aiden Boone and Nick Gleason as well as all-state LB-RB Zane Achterberg.

“The line play will be a big area of focus,” Craft said. “Thankfully on offense, we have (senior 1,000-yard rusher) Steve Holt back and we have (senior) Owen Spurgeon, a three-year starter at quarterback, back. Owen’s leadership on the offense will be key.

“We will rely on a lot of young guys to come up and fill roles.”

Craft said even though there will be plenty of new faces, the team will run much of the same systems on both sides of the ball.

“The offense will be the same; there will be a lot of flexbone,” Craft said. “Defensively we’ll still run a mix of odd and even (fronts).”

Among other players the Tiger offense figures to build around are senior receiver Hunter Freeman, senior receiver Owen Jackson, senior slotback John Nicholson and junior slotback Patrick Lonning.
Here is the Tigers’ 2026 schedule (all games to begin at 7 p.m.):

Aug. 21 - Sullivan Jamboree

Aug. 28 – Salem

Sept. 4 – Cuba

Sept. 11 - at Sullivan*

Sept. 18 - St. Clair*

Sept. 25 – Butler

Oct. 2 - at Hermann*

Oct. 9 - Union*

Oct. 16 - at Owensville*

Oct. 23 - at Pacific*

Oct. 30 - District Opener (tba)

*-Four Rivers Conference Game