It won’t be long.

At the end of this, long week the players from the St. James High School football team will get a few days of well-earned rest before strapping on the helmets and pads for real.

Last week the Tiger gridders participated in the two-day Tiger Team Camp before hosting the St. James Full-Contact Camp Thursday, July 23 at Tiger Field. Also competing in the full-contact camp were neighbor and regular-season opponent Cuba High School as well as Southern Boone.

“It’s been a real good summer,” said St. James head coach Dusty Craft. “We have had about 50 kids in the summer. We got in a lot of work at the 7-on-7 (passing) league in Rolla and the one in St. James. And we had all those practice and OTA days to get our base stuff down. Then the few days of Tiger Team Camp, putting on the finishing touches for these camps.

“Back in the day, those two-a-day practices served their purpose, with less of the summer stuff we have today. But the state gives us 20 contact days in the summer now, so we get plenty accomplished before the season gets started.”

Last week’s action was to prepare the Tigers for this week’s off-season finale, the Branson Full-Contact Camp, which is to be held Wednesday and Thursday, July 29-30. Craft said 42 Tiger players were to participate in the Branson Camp.

St. James will be joined by a huge contingent of other football teams at the two-day Branson event. They include Branson, Columbia Rock Bridge, Springfield Kickapoo, School of the Osage, Harrisonville, Belton, Capital City, South Callaway, Portageville, Mt. Vernon, Ozark, Aurora, Thayer, North Platte, Willow Springs, Stockton, Houston, Reeds Spring and Pierce City.

The Tigers certainly won’t meet all of those schools. But over the two days they will face off in different type of football scenarios with many of them. Those scenarios include jamboree-style, scrimmage, first-down challenge, third-down challenge, overtime challenge, goal-line challenge and rotational situations.

Here is St. James’ schedule at the Branson Camp:

Day 1

Jamboree: Aurora.

Scrimmage: Branson.

First-Down Challenge: South Callaway, Portageville, Thayer.

Jamboree: Portageville.

Third-Down Challenge: Aurora, Thayer, Portageville, Reeds Spring.

Day 2

OT Challenge: Reeds Spring.

Scrimmage: Willow Springs.

Rotation: Willow Springs, Pierce City.

Goal-Line Challenge: Belton, Reeds Spring.

Scrimmage: Osage.

That will end the Tigers’ summer off-season activities, with a quick turnaround before the first day of Missouri fall sports practice begins Monday, Aug. 10. Weather permitting, the Tigers are to practice from 3:30-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, Aug. 10-14. And on Saturday, Aug. 15 the annual 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. at Tiger Field.

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

STJ then officially begins its 2026 season by hosting Salem Friday, Aug. 28. The Four Rivers Conference has rearranged when league teams play each other this fall, and as a result St. James will open its conference schedule at Sullivan Sept. 11. The Tigers had opened league play against Hermann for a number of seasons prior to that.

“The key is staying healthy (this) week,” Craft said. “Our focus this summer has been up front, on the offensive line. We will have all new starters there. And at Branson those first down, third down and overtime challenges will really give us a good idea how they will play this year, especially playing flexbone football.”

Coming off a 4-7 record and losing several key players to graduation, preseason practice should be lively, with many starting positions up for grabs on both sides of the ball.

The Tiger offense is led by returning senior starting quarterback Owen Spurgeon and returning senior 1,000-yard rusher Steven Holt. The defense lost graduated all-state linebacker Zane Achterberg and will be looking for a new leader to emerge there.

“Our offensive line competition, it’s about where you should expect,” Craft said. “There are two or three sophomores and two juniors. We will not be losing any seniors for next year, so that’s great. But there is a lot of green right now. The last two weeks they’ve been able to adapt and adjust. The Branson Camp will be very important to them. With our quarterback back, Owen really understands the option game and has completely taken over the leadership role. And it’s always great to have a 1,000-yard rusher back in the backfield.

“Defensively we lost Achterberg and those are big shoes to fill. We’re kind of changing the defense schematically. We’re flipping to a 3-4, odd-man front look with two inside (linebackers) now. And (seniors) Steven Holt and Jayce Mathenia are doing a great job there.”