A Plano East defender tips the ball away from a Panthers wide receiver during a one-on-one drill during Monday morning’s practice. Photo by David Wolman / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Plano East head football coach Tony Benedetto and his coaching staff used all of the spring and summer to acclimate themselves to walking to the practice field.
With ongoing renovations to the baseball and softball fields as well as the construction of a new athletics center that will allow the Plano East basketball and volleyball teams to play freshman, junior varsity and varsity games in different gyms, players and coaches had to walk around the fences that have been built up around the construction area on Monday morning for the first day of fall practice.
The construction has forced the coaching staff for the Plano East football team to temporarily move their office to the former locker room of the softball and volleyball teams.
The athletic center was scheduled to be completed in July but is delayed and a completion date is still to be determined.
Construction and all, Plano East is just happy to be back playing on its practice field. Last year, the Panthers held their practices at Tom Kimbrough Stadium, located 3.4 miles, or a 10-minute drive, from the high school campus.
“It’s nice, especially for juniors and seniors to go here and not have to bus and drive to practice,” Benedetto said.
After several players warmed up at 7 a.m., the team’s remaining players and coaches arrived at the field 20 minutes later to officially commence the fall 2026 season.
Players lined up in the south end zone, yelled out chants of “oh” and clapped twice before spreading out across the length of the field for stretching.
The players were then split into their position groups.
Linemen worked on one-on-one blocking drills and calling out blocking assignments. Wide receivers competed in one-on-one drills against defensive backs and catching passes from the quarterbacks. Both the wide receivers and running backs also attempted to hold onto the ball for 20 yards while two defenders attempted to rip the ball out of their hands.
Benedetto is eager to see how Plano East’s offensive line grows over the next three weeks, a unit that doesn’t return any starters. The Panthers lost one player to transfer to a Houston-area school, and another isn’t returning to the team. Benedetto said there is a likelihood of starting one senior, three juniors and one sophomore along Plano East’s offensive line.
“The spring was a huge learning curve for the guys, with all of them having only played lower-level football,” Benedetto said. “Offensive line coach Kyle Sanders had them here every single day after workouts. They are moving with more energy and confidence today.”
Senior quarterback Josh Gordon looked like a No. 1 quarterback after spring ball and all of his passes Monday had a lot of zip and accuracy.
Sophomore running back Treyce Seldon, who recorded 1,231 all-purpose yards and 10 total touchdowns as a freshman, is looking more confident and has added 15 pounds of muscle.
Plano East’s wide receivers have been very competitive in practice. Juniors Colt Shannon and Tyson Seldon are tall-bodied receivers, which is something the Panthers haven’t had in recent years.
Shannon and Seldon should make Plano East’s offense more explosive than last year, a season in which the Panthers finished 2-8 after back-to-back six-win seasons.
Plano East will host Highland Park at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 for a scrimmage. The format will be 10 plays on offense for each team.
“Highland Park is a great scrimmage because it exposes the details kids may overlook,” Benedetto said. “You may find things like not being in the right gap or eyes not in the right place. That humbles us and gets us ready for week one.”
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