On one side of the ball, four Porters Chapel Academy football coaches and a couple of volunteers stood discussing and analyzing an upcoming play.

A few feet away, in a huddle that wasn’t much bigger, the entire varsity roster waited for their instructions.

The 2014 Eagles hit the field for the first time Thursday morning, practicing for nearly three hours under a gray, drizzly sky. A scant 17 players are on the varsity roster this season, forcing coaches to tweak the focus and structure of their workouts.

“When you start talking about going up against a dummy offense and a dummy defense, we don’t have the ability to do that. So we have to alter our plan and go half-line or one-on-one stuff,” PCA head coach Wayne Lynch said. “We don’t have enough to scrimmage or go against each other, so basically we’re running against air.”

Lynch is trying to get creative to solve his numbers issue. He’s reached out to other teams in similar situations about doing seven-on-seven drills, and is working junior high players into varsity practices more than usual.

In the end, though, he said the team will focus on what it can do and not what it can’t. That means more conditioning drills and walk-throughs of plays, rather than traditional scrimmages.

“Obviously, we have to get in shape. We spend a lot of time conditioning,” Lynch said. “We’re focusing on both sides of the ball, as well, because we don’t have enough to go head-to-head. We’re basically splitting practices up, offense and defense. It’s the hand we’ve been dealt, so we deal with it.”

Both Lynch and his players were optimistic that being short-handed will pay dividends later on.

There are nine seniors on the roster, so getting junior high players some work with the varsity in practice and perhaps in games will help when the program has to retool next year.

In the more immediate future, the emphasis on conditioning rather than scrimmaging might help players be in better shape and not wear down late in the season.

“That’s the reason we condition so much. We condition probably more than any team I’ve ever played for,” senior running back Hunter Lyons said. “That’s preparing us because we’re the smallest team. We’ve got to play both ways. We’re looking to prepare for what’s ahead of us.”

They’ll need to be in good shape, too. Despite the limited numbers available to Lynch, he wasn’t altering his plans to employ a fast-paced, no-huddle offense.

“The guys are excited. They’re not really worried about how many players we have,” Lynch said. “I’ve been harping to them that it doesn’t matter how many people we have. What matters is who we have. And I feel like we have a very strong group of kids, and they’re going to be very competitive.”

Thursday was the first day teams in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools could hold practice.

Teams in the Mississippi High School Activities Association — including Warren Central, Vicksburg High and St. Aloysius — will hold their first practices on Monday.

Porters Chapel followed its morning workout with another Thursday evening, and one this morning. Two-a-day practices are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Friday next week.

PCA will play in a jamboree at Mississippi College on Aug. 14, and its season opener in the Red Carpet Bowl Aug. 22 against Union Christian.

Quarterback Zac Morgan was happy to be back on the field and on the road to a new season.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s real intense out here, and I like the energy. Everybody’s having a good day so far, so it’s a lot of fun,” Morgan said. “We picked right up from the spring and did real good. I really like the energy.”