Eastern Starts Drills Monday With 22 Letterwinners Returning

Eastern Washington University, hoping to improve on last year’s 6-5 record, opens two-a-day preseason football drills Monday.

Fourth-year coach Mike Kramer expects 14 starters and 22 other letterwinners to return for an abbreviated summer camp that will conclude Sept. 4, just two days before the Eagles open their 1997 season at home against Rocky Mountain College, one of two NAIA opponents on the 11-game schedule.

“We return some real quality starters and have a strong nucleus of underclassmen,” Kramer said. “We’ll have one of the top I-AA programs in the Big Sky Conference this season - if not the United States.”

Eastern is ranked No. 13 nationally in The Sporting News’ preseason Division I-AA poll.

The Eagles will normally practice at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day. The first practice in full pads will be held Tuesday at 3 p.m., with the first scrimmage scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 3.

, DataTimes