Dylin Anderson received two rude introductions to life in Missouri on Monday.

A transfer from Georgetown, Ky., the Benton junior took not one but two bites from a garter snake during the first day of fall sports practice. Assistant coach Eric McDowell corralled the nonpoisonous serpent from Benton's practice field and released it unharmed.

Cardinals' coach Matt Tabor figures Anderson's reptilian encounter which left the potential starting tackle with minor wounds can go one of two ways.

"Here's the thing: I'm going to go into the office, seriously, and look up if that's a good or bad omen," said Tabor, entering his second year at the helm of his alma mater. "And if it's a good omen, I'm freaking going to have them all get bit tomorrow."

Across the Midland Empire and the state of Missouri, practices officially started for all fall sports Monday.

Most were probably less

adventurous than Benton's opening day of football. The Cardinals ran a two-a-day adjacent to and on Sparks Field during sticky, humid morning and afternoon sessions.

Aside from attending to snake bites, Benton spent much of its first day working on individual position drills before breaking ranks at about 1:30 p.m.

"This is everybody's favorite part of practice right here, when you get done," Benton senior running back/linebacker Dustin Williams said afterward. "But really for the first day, it looked pretty good."

Tabor occupied much of his time working with junior-varsity and freshman players, working the younger squads on his creative - occasionally complex - offensive playbook.

The Cardinals brought 102 players to their first day of practice, which activities director Mike Ziesel told Tabor was the most he's seen in 25 years at Benton. The surge in participation created a drive for Tabor to allot his services differently as he tries to create a loyalty to South Side football in the process of building a stable program.

"We are in a definite crunch. Starting tomorrow, we only have 14 more opportunities to get better before we play in the jamboree," Tabor said. "It's important to me that every single one of them gets one-on-one contact from me every day. The young, third-string JV guy is just as important to me as the starter on varsity, and I mean that."